


Yamazakura

by PrecariousSauce



Series: Five Petals [4]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Background Kisame/Itachi, Background Relationships will be Tagged as they Become Relevant, Body Horror, Canon-Atypical Swearing, Canon-Typical Violence, Character Development, F/M, Family, Friendship, Gen, Intrigue, M/M, Not A Fix-It, Politics, Tags Subject to Updates, Worldbuilding
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-21
Updated: 2020-12-25
Packaged: 2021-02-28 19:22:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 9
Words: 87,310
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23182411
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PrecariousSauce/pseuds/PrecariousSauce
Summary: A continuation of Five PetalsYamazakura;A cherry tree that grows in the wild, uncultivated.Everything Sakura’s been working toward, all her efforts over these two years in the dark will finally bear fruit. She can feel her headband sitting heavy in her weapons pouch. She resists its call. She can only wear it again when her mission ends, however it ends.Sakura takes a deep breath and opens the door.Time to shed her skin.
Relationships: Haruno Sakura/Uchiha Sasuke
Series: Five Petals [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1584103
Comments: 307
Kudos: 577





	1. Prologue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "The Senju speak of fire, but they only see its light, its warmth. They don’t touch it, shape it, breathe it as we do. The only will fire has is the will to consume whatever it touches. Senju throw their lives away, abandon those they are to protect, throw any body– able or not– onto the front lines, recklessly sacrificing pieces to save the whole. The Will of Fire asks you to set yourself aflame to keep others warm."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And we're back, baby! While _Five Petals_ is required reading and _Intermission_ is recommended reading, if you'd rather get the Authentic Naruto Experience™ and skip _Intermission_ I won't get mad. Let's get to it!

**0.** Suki Uchiha wakes to the sound of screaming cicadas with tear tracks on her face. Neither is anything she’s not used to.

Suki struggles out of her bedroll and takes a broad look around the tent. In its wide expanse there’s only her and her nurse, Hotsu, sleeping on her left side with her back to the front flaps. Suki hears that the daughters of daimyō can sneak away from their sleeping nurses in the middle of the night and slip out of their estates to go have all sorts of adventures. She knows the second _she_ moves out of _her_ bedroll Hotsu will be on her feet, kunai in hand and Sharingan spinning. Suki just shakes her awake.

Hotsu blinks, bleary-eyed, and yawns, "Young Mistress, what is it? You should be sleeping."

One of the first lessons Suki learned in her seven years was how to speak when all she wants is to sob; "I would like to go see my father, please."

Hotsu opens her mouth to give her the usual speech, that her father is a _very busy man_ and whatever it is can _wait until morning_ , but her gaze hangs on Suki’s quivering lip and the words catch in her throat.

Instead, she sighs, "Very well then, Young Mistress. Hold just a moment."

Hotsu extricates herself from her bedroll and ambles over to the front flap. She lifts it and pokes her head outside, speaking a few hushed whispers before drawing back and ushering Suki over. Hotsu parts the tent flaps for Suki to stumble through. Her uncle Izuna is waiting just outside, as he always does– No man of the Uchiha Clan is ever assigned to guard his _own_ wife and children.

Izuna smiles and asks, "Would you like me to carry you, Suki?"

Suki finds it in herself to pout; "I– I-I’m too old for that, Uncle."

Izuna laughs and offers his hand; "I see, _do_ forgive my impertinence then, Lady Uchiha. Come, allow me to avenge this slight by guiding you to your father."

Suki hides a hiccuping giggle behind her sleeve and gives Izuna her other hand. He dips low in a courtly bow before leading her towards the heart of the Uchiha Compound.

Suki has been told that once upon a time the Uchiha Compound had been a fortress at the top of a mountain, given life by the spring that birthed the Naka River. The walls had been glittering white, the roof tiles deep blue, and the clan crest painted in brilliant red wherever there was room. The forest had hidden them and the mountain had protected them. War had been far away, there. Suki cannot imagine that life. She was born in a forward operating camp. All she has ever known is a life in constant motion, their caravan making pilgrimage from battle to battle in the Naka River Valley. In seven years she’s lived in thrice as many places, leaving by day to find the next battle or by night with enemies dogging their steps.

They say in seven more years she will marry a daimyō’s son to secure a contract, or a clan head’s son to secure an alliance. Suki thinks she would prefer the daimyō’s son. Perhaps living within his estate will bring her closer to what their home on the mountain might have been like.

To eyes without Sharingan, all the Uchiha tents look the same. Now that Suki has awoken hers, she can see what makes her father’s grander than the rest. In iridescent red a dragon twists and whirls along the heavy canvas, scales glittering in the torchlight. Izuna catches her gawking from the corner of his eye. He smiles, but the expression is dulled by a wash of sorrow. Many Uchiha smiles are.

Izuna lifts the tent’s front flap and chuckles, "Venerable Lord Uchiha, I come to you as escort for one of our clansmen. She has come with an _urgent_ petition that must be heard at _once._ "

Her father, lit by low candlelight, looks up from the maps splayed out in front of him. With firelight playing through his long dark hair and a stern frown darkening his features, for a moment Suki sees only Lord Madara Uchiha, Dragon of the South and one of the most fearsome shinobi alive. Suki cannot keep from sucking a sharp breath in through her teeth. His eyes, sharp as a falcon’s, dart to the sound and pick her out of the darkness. The tension drains from his shoulders and his frown washes away, replaced by the barest shadow of a smile. In the time it takes for a hummingbird to flap it’s wings he is her father again.

He nods to Izuna; "Thank you. You are dismissed."

Izuna bows low and takes his leave. There is a brief pause where father and daughter stare at each other across a map of the river valley, neither sure who ought to speak first. Her father makes the first move and wordlessly pats the cushion at his side. Suki forgets that she is a daughter of the Uchiha, the daughter of a ninja, and scrambles ungracefully around to throw herself against her father’s side and bury her face in his robes. Her father’s arm comes around to tuck her in closer, sheltering her like a hen hides her chicks beneath her feathers.

He murmurs, voice rich and dark like the night sky, "Which raid did you dream of?"

Her voice is thick and high and reedy as she chokes out, "T-the last– The one wh– _When M-mother–!_ "

Suki’s words are torn to pieces by sharp sobs that make her whole body convulse.

She remembers her mother in all her shades. She remembers Mother in bright sunlight, gathering flowers and braiding them into her hair, tucking one behind Father’s ear and winning a warm smile and a kiss to her temple in return.

She remembers Mother’s eyes burning with the Sharingan as she grabs an assassin by the collar, forces him to the ground, and thrusts a single senbon into his neck to kill him quickly and painlessly.

She remembers Mother through a hole in the physician’s tent, sagging against Father, whispering, "I can’t do it again, Madara, I can’t, I can’t lose another baby, not like this or on the battlefield or–" and Father drawing her closer as he murmurs, "So you won’t, my love. We did what we could. No more."

She remembers what the inside of Mother’s chest looked like as the white-haired Senju in blue armor carved her open with a blade of water, the blood black like oil in the light from the burning tents; The Senju had turned his gaze toward Suki, but Mother’s last act in this world had been to spit blood directly into his eye, making him flinch right into a bevy of shuriken from Izuna.

She remembers her mother’s corpse growing more and more distant as Izuna threw her over his shoulder and carried her away, remembers her corpse waiting every time she closed her eyes, every time she slept.

Her father’s hand cards through her hair, his voice bringing her home to the present; "You miss her."

"I-I don’t," Suki gasps, "I don't k-know what I–! What do I do without her?"

Suki looks up to see her father’s eyes staring off, past the tent, past the river valley, past everything; "I’ve been wondering that myself. I don’t know if that’s a question that actually has an answer. For now… For now, we do as we have always done. We do unto the Senju as they have done unto us."

Suki nuzzles closer to her father, eyes resting on the map without reading it. No matter how many times they do unto the Senju as the Senju have done to them, it never seems to break through their armor and pierce the soft underbelly. They lay waste to the Senju on the battlefield, steal their clients, raze their camps, and they always come back to cut down yet more brothers and mothers and friends, never satisfied with the pain they’ve already caused.

Suki grasps a tight handful of her father’s _haori_ and murmurs, "Do the Senju hate us because we’re cursed?"

Her father had been drafting some sort of missive with his other hand, but it immediately stills and he fixes her with a startled look; " _Cursed?_ "

Suki shrinks away from her father’s gaze; "They… I’ve heard smallfolk say we’re cursed. That we have a Curse of Hatred, where our love turns to hate when we lose the people we care for, and we lose ourselves trying to prove that we’re better, and–"

"Not a word of that is true."

Suki’s eyes leap back to her father’s face. His gaze is hard, but not cruel. He looks as he does when he gives speeches to inspire the men, when he barters with daimyō who will easily cave at the sight of Sharingan, when he rides off to a battle he knows he can win.

He continues, "There is no curse upon our blood. The Curse of Hatred is a vile piece of slander the Senju spit about us to any who will listen. They’re blind to their own faults, to the blood they’ve shed in the name of revenge. They would rather paint us as monsters than admit to being anything less than wise sages who are _above_ such base things as _caring_ when those they love are slain. Each of them, to a man, hypocrites."

Her meets her eyes; "You have heard of the Curse of Hatred. Have you also heard of their _Will of Fire?_ "

Suki nods, grip tightening on her father’s robes. All the smallfolk are abuzz about the Will of Fire, obsessed with the Senju’s pretty dream. She hears it being whispered around every street corner, this utopia where every man forgets clan and family and acts as just one root holding up a tree so large it breaches the clouds. It’s inescapable.

Father strokes her hair and his voice drifts into the tone he uses when telling her a story; "My grandfather fought the head of the Senju Clan when they were young men. He chased him through the clan compound and all the way to his home. As the clan head’s defeat drew nearer, Grandfather sent him tearing through the wall of his tent, and when he followed, he saw the man’s wife and infant son huddled in a corner. He thought of his own wife, miles away. He thought of my father, still so young. He offered the head of the Senju Clan a simple set of terms– leave, and the Uchiha Clan would not follow. Leave, and he could see his son grow up."

Father’s hand stills on the top of her head. He shuts his eyes. He takes a deep breath, in through his nose, out through his mouth. Suki waits.

His voice is brimming with sorrow and shaking with rage as he continues, "His wife threw a kunai into her husband’s throat. She drew another and drove it into the heart of her wailing son. My grandfather asked her why. She had answered, 'Better he die for the clan than live for us'. The Senju came upon the scene and did not see my grandfather. They saw their clan’s leader and his heir martyred, his wife mad with grief. The Senju were galvanized by her pretty lie instead of shaken by the truth. They brought their whole clan down upon our compound and cut us down by half."

Tears run down Suki’s face as she imagines the poor baby, screaming his little throat raw. He must have been so frightened. He must have been clinging so tight to his mother’s breast, secure in the knowledge that at least this was safe. At least she would protect him. What could he have thought as the knife came down? Could he have thought anything at all?

Father draws her onto his lap and holds her close. He presses his lips into her hair. She buries her face into his chest and inhales the scent of smoke. Father’s love is warm and steady, like a heavy quilt in Winter.

She feels the rumble of his deep voice as he murmurs, "The Senju speak of fire, but they only see its light, its warmth. They don’t touch it, shape it, _breathe_ it as we do. The only _will_ fire has is the will to consume whatever it touches. Senju throw their lives away, abandon those they are to protect, throw any body– able or not– onto the front lines, recklessly sacrificing pieces to save the whole. The Will of Fire asks you to set yourself aflame to keep others warm."

Suki would hold onto those words, even after the alliance, the founding of the village, her father’s defection, and her clan’s disavowal of him in favor of licking Hashirama’s boots.

She would spit them at her husband through grit teeth when he would return from meetings of the clans with his tail between his legs, having conceded yet _more_ to the Senju.

She would whisper them to Fugaku when he was small and still needed to cry away the nightmares on her lap. She would mutter them to Fugaku again when he was not quite small, not quite tall, and it fell to her to teach him what it _truly_ took to be the head of the Uchiha Clan. She would state them solidly and without flinching when Fugaku was a grown man and expressed doubts about the coup d’état.

She would spin them to little Itachi and Sasuke as she told them stories from a time not as long ago as they would like to hope, when the Tailed Beasts roamed free and all was anarchy.

And they would be the last words that passed through her mind as Itachi came for her on that blood-soaked night, tears streaking down his face as the Will of Fire burned him alive.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> STARTING OUT ON A CHEERY NOTE WOO


	2. Chapter 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "Naruto and Sasuke… When things are going well, they bring out the best in each other," Tsunade sighs, setting her pen aside to rub at her Strength of a Hundred Seal, "That competitive streak they both have makes them push the other to get better, and they grow faster together than they would apart. But, when things aren’t going well, when they aren’t seeing eye to eye, they can bring out the _worst_ in each other just as easily."
> 
> Shizune’s eyes drop to the floor; "We’ve all seen how ugly it can get between them when they’re not getting along, and that was when they both were… Less formidable, let’s just say. They seemed like they were doing fine here in the office, but–"
> 
> "There’s still baggage there," Jiraiya cuts in, "I could see it on Naruto’s face. Tsunade, I get what you’re trying to do, but what you think is just a rabbit hole could be hiding a fox."
> 
> Tsunade arches a brow, eyes shining bright and fierce; "Then it’s a good thing they’re up against a hound."

**I.** In the pre-dawn light, the world is a pale blue-grey. Fog rolls down the mountains and spreads out across the vast open wetlands of the Land of Sound. It settles thick over the rice paddies, and if any were awake, none of the farmers would see the long slender leaves shifting ever so slightly as a shadow slaloms through their crops. The shadow creeps West, moving until he hits the edge of the paddy, where it buts up against a copse of oak trees. He climbs out of the paddy, shaking the water off the hem of his dark cloak. He pauses.

Sai observes the trees through his tiger mask. Not for the first time, he wonders how they got here. Perhaps a grave marker for a Senju, commemorating a battle that took them this far North? Or perhaps they just grew here naturally. After all, oak trees aren’t unheard of in Sound. It’s the simpler explanation, so it’s likely correct.

He sighs beneath his mask. Return to the task at hand. There is no room for curiosity.

Sai falls back into his rhythm. He stays low as he inches deeper into the trees, eyes crawling across the uneven ground for his target. The asset is good about rotating her drop points, but she falls into her patterns, the same as any Leaf. If he’s read her right, it should be nestled between two roots on the largest tree in the copse at it’s dead center. Sai keeps his breathing slow, his steps soft, his chakra contained. The civilians may be asleep, but this is the perfect time for ninja to be out.

His caution proves prudent. Before Sai can come all the way around a tree’s thick trunk he catches sight of a form leaning against the largest tree in the copse. He immediately presses his body to the bark and, with a _ram_ sign, uses the Hiding in Surface technique to sink into the tree. He slides up it’s trunk and into the canopy, breaching carefully so as to not disturb the branches.

From his perch in the leaves Sai observes the interloper. The round glasses sitting low on his nose are covered in a layer of condensation. His long silver hair has been braided and draped across his shoulders. Any identifying fatigues are hidden beneath a heavy cloak with a mantle that reaches down to his elbows, but Sai doesn’t need that hint– He recognizes the face from the intel. Kabuto Yakushi is mere feet away from him. One of Kabuto’s arms is crossed over his chest while the other tosses a round stone up in the air and catches it, over and over again. Sai resists the jolt that tries to run up his spine upon seeing the stone.

Before he can formulate a strategy, Kabuto holds the stone up above his head. He taps the face of it with his thumb, chakra flowing into the rock and lighting up a seal.

The seal breaks, releasing a hushed, feminine voice into the air; "This is Sakura Haruno reporting on March First, One-Thousand-and-Two. All my assets are in position and all my preparations have been made. I’ll be making my move in ten days time. If all goes well, I will have eliminated the target in twenty four hours with no casualties and will be arriving back to headquarters in a week at most. If… If it doesn’t… There’s another stone, buried in the dirt below this one. It has a message for my mother, Tsubaki Haruno. If you can, please bring it to her. If Danzō says you can’t, then… I understand. Signing off."

Kabuto smirks, drawling, "See, _that’s_ why you _never_ work with amateurs."

Sai drops from the branches, landing a yard away from Kabuto; "If Sakura’s mission was your primary concern, I imagine you would be back at your base killing her right now. So it stands to reason _I_ am your target."

Kabuto chuckles, "Got it in one."

"And if I _am_ your target," Sai continues, "You discovered me long before I got close, and could have engaged me or trapped me then. So, then, your intention is…?"

Kabuto’s smirk stretches into a grin; "Things have changed since my day, but I know you’re still wired with a radio. Call your boss. Tell him Kabuto wants to make a deal."

* * *

This past Winter was a warm one, so even this early in the season the cherry blossoms are starting to open up, blanketing the Leaf Village in petals. From his vantage point atop this telephone pole Naruto feels like he’s looking at the village through fluffy pink clouds. If there’s an ideal way to finally see his home again after two years away, Naruto’s sure this is it.

In a way, everything’s changed. Sakura’s favorite tea house is now an izakaya, the main drag is actually _paved,_ the hospital has grown another wing, and Tsunade has joined her family and teacher on Hokage Rock. But there are still kids running through the street, laughing and smiling. There are still genin teams sitting on benches and enjoying a snack after some mind-numbing D-rank. There are still little convenience stores with cats lounging out front in the warm spring sunshine.

People are still happy. So the Leaf Village hasn’t changed at all.

Naruto grins wide and stands to his full height, throwing his arms out wide as he calls out, "Look out, Leaf Village! Your future Hokage is back to take this town by storm, _believe it!_ "

A few people look up in shock. Some more wave. Even more shoot dirty looks his way. Jiraiya shakes his head and crosses his arms over his chest with a fond chuckle. So many more people just keep on walking.

Nothing Naruto didn’t expect. This place really _hasn’t_ changed at all.

"Hey, Dumbass!"

Naruto almost falls off the telephone pole. He spins toward the familiar voice and finds it’s source perched on the next roof over and… _grinning_ at him? Naruto rubs his eyes. No, it’s real.

Sasuke Uchiha is _smiling_ in a way that shows his _teeth_ in _public_ in _broad daylight._

He’s gotten taller, swapped out his stupid high-collared shirt and shorts for a heavy canvas jacket and pants, and his headband now sits where his brace used to. His face has gotten more lean and chiseled in a way that _almost_ makes Naruto think of Itachi before he pushes the thought away. He’s still _slightly_ favoring his left leg as he grins ( _grins!_ ) at Naruto across the gap.

Sasuke brings a hand up to cup around his mouth as he calls, "Long time no s–!"

Naruto doesn’t let him finish that sentence. He’s leapt over to the roof and pulled him into the tightest bear hug he has in him before Sasuke can blink. Sasuke returns the squeeze twofold, the strength of his grip forcing a shocked wheeze out of Naruto’s lungs.

Sasuke breaks the embrace and pulls back to say, "No wonder Shizune _insisted_ I take the rooftops for that errand. Did you just get back?"

"Yeah, like five minutes ago," Naruto laughs, "It’s been forever, dude, how are you? How's the village?"

"Well, as you can see," Sasuke gestures with his arm to the surrounding buildings, "I managed not to burn the place down while you were gone."

"Good thing you didn’t! If I got back here and couldn’t get my Ichiraku fix there’d be Hell to pay," Naruto replies, "We’re _definitely_ getting lunch there, _believe_ it!"

"Sure, but first I gotta drag you to the tower," Sasuke sighs, "You know how Tsunade will get if you put off reporting back."

A voice, less high pitched than he remembers, calls from the ground, "Hey! Naruto!"

Naruto and Sasuke peer over the side of the roof. Naruto recognizes Konohamaru’s long blue scarf a fraction of a second before he recognizes the kid himself. He hasn’t changed as much in the face as Sasuke, but he’s shot up at least half a foot and he’s replaced Naruto’s old goggles with a proper Leaf Village headband. His two friends are close by, also sporting headbands and bright grins. From the corner of his eye Naruto spies Jiraiya hanging back, eyeing the gaggle of genin with an arched brow and bemused smirk.

Naruto grins wide and crows, "Hey guys," before leaping off the roof. He _hears_ Sasuke roll his eyes before he follows him down, the two of them landing in front of the three kids.

Naruto reaches out and ruffles Konohamaru’s hair; "Good to see you, Konohamaru! So you made genin, huh? That’s great! Are these guys your team now?"

Konohamaru flushes with pride; "You know it! I can’t believe you’re back, we’ve been on so many missions and I’ve got so many crazy new jutsu to show you, I–!"

"You’ve got time for one," Sasuke cuts in, "The Hokage’s waiting on him."

Konohamaru shoots a quick glare over Naruto’s shoulder at Sasuke before it falls into a pensive frown. He taps his chin with his index finger as he thinks. After a moment, his eyes light up and his mouth unfolds into a wicked grin.

Konohamaru runs through _dog_ and _boar_ as he exclaims, "Check this out! Se–!"

Moegi’s fist slams down on the top of Konohamaru’s head like he’s a Whack-a-Mole. Konohamaru chokes on his own spit and goes crashing to the ground before he can even think of forming _ram._

Moegi glares down at Konohamaru and snaps, "What is _wrong with you?!_ We’re in _public_ and _Sasuke is here!_ If you embarrass me in front of Sasuke I _swear_ I will _strangle you with your own scarf!_ "

She turns to Sasuke and is all sweetness and light in blink of an eye; "I’m _so_ sorry about him, Sasuke, I don’t know _where_ he gets these ideas from–"

As Moegi prattles on Naruto crouches down next to Konohamaru and whispers, "Yeah, uh, Pro-tip on the Sexy Jutsu: _Don’t do it in front of girls._ "

Konohamaru rubs the sore spot on the top of his head and mutters, "Got it, Boss."

Sasuke grabs Naruto by the elbow and drags him to his feet as he starts down the street, " _Yeah_ we’re gonna get going now, come on Naruto."

From the corner of his ear Naruto hears Moegi call, "Bye Sasuke! I’ll see you around, that’s a promise!"

Jiraiya falls in step with the two of them and snickers, "So you’re _still_ popular with the girls, huh Uchiha?"

Naruto's shoulders slump as he groans, "Of course _that_ didn’t change."

"If _you_ want a legion of preteen girls who fall in love with you after you heal _one_ training injury following you around you can _have_ them," Sasuke hisses through grit teeth.

Naruto is ready to withhold any and all sympathy for Sasuke’s plight. That’s before they’re waylaid on their way to the tower by a half dozen _more_ girls between the ages of eleven and fourteen trying to flag down Sasuke. One even fakes a bad fall to get Sasuke’s (medical) attention, but instead gets a scolding from her jōnin sensei. All told, they make the straight shot down the main drag to the Hokage Tower take an extra ten minutes.

"I _can’t believe_ there are _no_ girls _your own age_ in your little gaggle of admirers," Jiraiya grouses as they spiral single-file up the stairs to Tsunade’s office, "That circus outside would be bearable if it got you even one date, but–"

From his position between Sasuke and Jiraiya Naruto sees Sasuke’s shoulders tighten and his grip on the handrail go white-knuckled. The metal crunches under his grip, and when he removes his hand that portion of the railing is a perfect mold for the inside of Sasuke’s fist.

Sasuke’s voice comes out rough and dark; "I'm _not interested_ in a _date._ "

Sasuke keeps going up the stairs but Naruto and Jiraiya hang back for a moment, watching his back recede.

"Well," Jiraiya mutters, "Guess that answers the 'is he over Sakura yet' question."

Naruto tastes something sour on his tongue he can’t identify and jogs to catch up with Sasuke. They fall back into small talk, expertly pretending that didn’t just happen without needing to discuss it.

They make it to Tsunade’s office and Sasuke raps on the door with his knuckles; "Lady Tsunade, you have a," Sasuke shoots Naruto an apprising glance before continuing, "mildly important visitor."

Naruto elbows Sasuke in the ribs and Sasuke elbows him back as Tsunade calls from inside, "Bring him in."

Naruto brings himself in, throwing the doors open and declaring, "Howdy there, Grandma! I’m back!"

Tsunade, Shizune, and Tonton aren’t a surprise. They’re exactly where he expected them to be and reacting how he thought they would– Shizune is beaming from ear to ear, Tonton is bouncing excitedly in her arms, and Tsunade is rubbing her temples while fighting a wry but fond smile. The surprise comes as Shikamaru and a blonde woman it takes Naruto a few shameful seconds to identify as Gaara’s sister Temari turn away from Tsunade’s desk to fix Naruto with a matching set of shocked expressions.

Shikamaru breaks into a lopsided smile; "Well well, look what the cat dragged in."

Temari crosses her arms over her chest with a tiny smirk; "Looks like I have _more_ good news to bring home. It’s good to see you again, Naruto."

"Same to you," Naruto replies, strolling further in, "What dragged you guys all the way up here?"

"They arrived _on time_ for an appointment," Tsunade cuts in, shooting Sasuke a pointed look, "Want to tell me how a five minute walk took _ten_ minutes?"

"Your apprentice’s fanclub is how," Jiraiya snorts, hooking a thumb at Sasuke, "We had to beat them off with a stick."

Sasuke drags a hand down his face and grumbles, "Should’ve used the rooftops."

Tsunade lets a soft, breathy laugh sneak through before turning her sharp eyes back to Naruto; "So, I trust your time away was productive?"

Naruto grins wide and puts his hands on his hips; "You know it! You’re looking at a whole new ninja, Grandma, believe it!"

Tsunade steeples her fingers in front of her mouth; " _Really._ Talk is one thing, Naruto, and we all know you’re the biggest talker in the Leaf Village. Can you back it up?"

Naruto’s grin drops as he surveys Tsunade’s office; "I mean, sure, but I don’t think you want me to make your office any _more_ of a mess so–"

Tsunade rolls her eyes; "Not _here,_ obviously. I think a test is in order to see how far you’ve really come."

Temari perks up and remarks, "I could administer the test, Lady Tsunade, if you’d allow it. And I’m sure my _escort_ would be _more than happy_ to help, wouldn’t he?"

Shikamaru lets his eyes slide closed as he groans, " _Really? This_ is how you want to welcome the kid back?"

Temari flashes him a predatory grin; "No better way to catch up, in my opinion."

Tsunade almost looks proud as she smiles over at Temari; "I appreciate the offer, but I already have a proctor lined up. He _should_ have been here ten minutes ago, but–"

From the corner of his eye Naruto sees a flicker outside one of the far windows. As he hears it open Naruto turns to the sound, his eyes going wide at the source.

"Sorry everyone," Kakashi sighs as he perches on the windowsill, "I was on my way over here when this fruit cart–"

Naruto wants to be happy to see Kakashi again. He _is_ happy to see Kakashi again, for the most part. But deep in his gut he feels something twist at the fact that today, of _all days,_ Kakashi is late.

Naruto shoves his darker thoughts to the back of his mind and puts his grin back on; "I can’t believe your excuses have gotten even _worse,_ Kakashi-sensei!"

Kakashi’s eye crinkles at the corner; "Well well, look who’s all grown up. Welcome back, Naruto."

Naruto perks up and jogs over to the window; "Oh yeah! Before I forget, I have a souvenir for you!"

Kakashi’s eyebrow lifts as Naruto rummages around in his weapon pouch, then leaps all the way up to disappear behind his hair when Naruto presents him with the little green book. He can hear half the room let out some form of a groan as they get a glimpse at the cover. Jiraiya makes an indignant grunt, but doesn’t complain out loud.

Kakashi’s eye is nearly sparkling; "Is this–?"

Naruto nods; "You better believe it. What good is having an in with famous people if you can’t bum favors off them for your friends?"

He hears Tsunade sputter from her desk, " _Famous?! In_ famous is more like it, and even that’s pushing it–"

Jiraiya cuts in, "Oh _I’m sorry,_ how many bestseller lists are _your_ books on? That’s right, _none_."

"Yeah, because I have a _real job–_ "

"Naruto," Kakashi puts his hand on Naruto’s shoulder and looks him in the eye, "You’re my new favorite."

Sasuke comes around Naruto’s other side, spluttering, "What happened to 'I don’t play favorites'?!"

Kakashi smirks beneath his mask; "I don’t _play_ favorites, but I can still _have_ them, can’t I?"

Naruto sticks his tongue out at Sasuke and Sasuke shoots him a withering glare, whispering, "You know I _live_ with this asshole now, right? I have to _live_ with the consequences of _your_ actions."

Naruto immediately blanches; "I… I am _so_ sorry."

" _Ahem,_ excuse me," Shizune shouts above the bickering, "Now that everyone’s here, Lady Tsunade, should we–?"

"Yes, you’re right," Tsunade picks up, schooling her voice back into a somewhat authoritative tone, "Naruto, Sasuke, Kakashi will be testing you _both_ in a challenge of his design. How you fare will determine your future status."

Naruto quirks a brow; "Our future status? What does that–"

"With all due respect, Ma’am," Sasuke talks over him, crossing his arms over his chest, "Won’t teaming up with me give Naruto an unfair advantage?"

Naruto feels another twinge in his gut; "What’s _that_ supposed to mean?"

Sasuke shrugs a shoulder; "Kakashi and I have been training and taking missions together for the past six months. The information I have plus our numbers advantage gives our side an edge over his."

 _Another_ twinge, like something in Naruto’s stomach is tying itself into a knot. He can tell from the look on his face Sasuke isn’t _trying_ to rub it in that he’s spent more time with Kakashi recently than Naruto has in their entire time as a team, but it sure _sounds_ like he is.

"I wouldn’t be so sure about that," Kakashi drawls as he thumbs through the first few pages of the new Icha Icha Paradise, "You’ve been training and fighting with me, but that just means _I’ve_ been training and fighting with _you._ I have the exact same edge you do, plus an extra twenty years of experience as a ninja. And on top of that, _neither_ of us has any idea what Naruto’s hiding up his sleeve, do we?"

Naruto can’t help a smug grin while the tips of Sasuke’s ears flush and he looks away, muttering, "Yeah, yeah, fair enough."

Naruto pounds a fist into his hand and crows, "Alright then, let’s get right to it! Lead the way, sensei!"

Kakashi’s eyebrow hops up again; "And not give you _any_ time to settle in? No, no, this can wait. Go ahead and see some more of the sights– I’ll meet you both at Training Ground 3 in two hours. Don’t be late!"

He disappears in a flicker of lightning-quick movement, and Naruto can’t help grumbling, "Where does _he_ get off telling _us_ that?"

Sasuke bumps Naruto with his shoulder; "Bet he just wants to get a head start on that book while I’m not in the apartment to hear him j–"

Shikamaru comes up from behind and claps them each on the shoulder; "Two hours sounds like just enough time for a bite to eat. Since we can’t test you, we’ll treat you. How’s that sound, _Temari?_ "

Temari rolls her eyes; "Doesn’t matter to me. I’ll mark it down as a mission expense and get it reimbursed."

Naruto’s grin is back in place; "Sweet! Hope the Sand village is ready to go bankrupt, 'cause I’m gonna clean Ichiraku out!"

Sasuke shoots a playful glare at Shikamaru; "Look at what you’ve done. You’ve caused a financial crisis, _all_ for _this_ dumbass."

Shikamaru just shrugs as he leads them out of the office; "No better dumbass to do it for."

* * *

Once the office doors close behind the four young ninja, Jiraiya arches a brow and remarks, "Uchiha _did_ have a point, you know."

"He _has_ spent a _lot_ of time facing off against Kakashi," Shizune adds, futzing with Tonton’s necklace, "And since he has the Sharingan, he has perfect recall of all of Kakashi’s tricks. You’re sure they won’t have an advantage?"

"Shizune I understand, but Jiraiya, _you_ know as well as I do what the Bell Test is really for," Tsunade replies, returning to her paperwork as she speaks, "It’s not about winning or losing, not in the strictest sense, anyway."

She looks Jiraiya in the eye as she decisively scribbles her signature; "The Bell Test is about teamwork. The _point_ of this test is to see if Naruto, who’s spent two and a half years working solo, and Sasuke, who’s spent that time with people who know how to work together on instinct, can meet in the middle and learn how to be a team again."

"Oh, I see," Shizune exclaims, eyes lighting up, "And they’ve been developing on different paths with different mentors, we’ll need to see how they can adjust to someone whose skill set they don’t know!"

Jiraiya examines Tsunade for a long moment before he says, "It’s not just that, is it."

Tsunade reads over, fills out, and signs off on a few more forms. Silence fills the room, thick and heavy like snow.

"Naruto and Sasuke… When things are going well, they bring out the best in each other," Tsunade sighs, setting her pen aside to rub at her Strength of a Hundred Seal, "That competitive streak they both have makes them push the other to get better, and they grow faster together than they would apart. But, when things _aren’t_ going well, when they _aren’t_ seeing eye to eye, they can bring out the _worst_ in each other just as easily."

Shizune’s eyes drop to the floor; "We’ve _all_ seen how ugly it can get between them when they’re not getting along, and that was when they both were… Less formidable, let’s just say. They _seemed_ like they were doing fine here in the office, but–"

"There’s still baggage there," Jiraiya cuts in, "I could see it on Naruto’s face. Tsunade, I get what you’re trying to do, but what you think is just a rabbit hole could be hiding a fox."

Tsunade arches a brow, eyes shining bright and fierce; "Then it’s a good thing they’re up against a hound."

* * *

Lunch was probably a bad time to ask after his friends. As Temari, Shikamaru, and Sasuke rattle off the various promotions to chūnin and jōnin everyone has earned Naruto can feel his ramen making the journey back up his digestive tract. It almost breaks through when they _casually_ drop the fact that Gaara actually managed to become the _Fifth Kazekage_. He has to force it back down with an audible, _visible_ gulp.

"That’s _amazing,_ " Naruto exclaims, shoving all the Bad Feelings down to make room for all the good ones, "I knew he had it in him, but to power through a whole _election_ like that–! When you get back, tell him I said congratulations!"

Temari smiles and chuckles, "Certainly," she cranes her neck around to look at Sasuke, "Should I also tell him you enjoyed your Succulent-of-the-Month, Sasuke?"

Sasuke rolls his eyes and makes an affirmative, yet aggrieved, noise around his mouthful of ramen.

Naruto cocks his head to one side; "Huh? Succulent of the what?"

"Whenever someone from Sand comes to the village on official business Gaara always sends them off with a cactus for Sasuke," Shikamaru explains, "Don’t ask me how or why that arrangement started up."

Sasuke finishes his bite and clarifies, "Some succulents are good for making into poisons or medicines. Gaara grows them as a hobby, so the easiest way to get my hands on samples is to just ask him. And the flowers make good treats for Katsuyu, so that’s something."

Naruto cringes; "Oh yeah, Grandma Tsunade _would_ be teaching you how to summon slugs, huh? Talk about gross."

"You think _you’re_ grossed out by them, Kakashi can’t cope with them at all," Sasuke scoffs, "I’m not allowed to summon them into the apartment unless it’s a life or death emergency, _that’s_ how bad it is."

Naruto throws his head back with a cackle, "Who knew Kakashi was such a wimp about slimy stuff! That’s what we should do for the test, just throw slugs and frogs at him ’til he gives up!"

"Or until he makes his dogs eat them all," Temari remarks, making both Naruto and Sasuke go pale.

"You only think they’re gross ’til they’re saving your life," Shikamaru comments, "If you didn’t have Katsuyu during that shit show out near the Rain border, I wouldn’t be sitting here right now."

"You would’ve been _fine,_ " Sasuke chuffs, "Missing an arm, maybe, but still fine."

"I think you both are forgetting who _really_ saved your life," Temari remarks, sitting up straight and looking down her nose at Shikamaru.

Shikamaru holds her gaze for a moment before remarking, "Yeah, Kankuro really came in clutch with that Sand backup–"

Temari jabs her chopsticks at Shikamaru’s throat; "You _know_ I know over thirty ways to kill a man with these, Nara."

Shikamaru just rolls his eyes; "With sweet talk like that I have _no idea_ how some lucky guy hasn’t snapped you up yet."

"Guys, we’re in public," Sasuke groans, " _Please_ save it for Temari’s hotel room."

They both turn to glare sharply at Sasuke across Naruto; "We _aren’t–!_ "

"Yeah yeah, sure," Sasuke sighs, "Try that line on Naruto instead of me, see if _he_ believes it. After all, _he_ hasn’t heard it a million times."

Naruto’s eyes go wide as he finally catches up with the banter before shooting a mischievous grin at them; "Go on, tell me what you guys _definitely_ aren’t doing!"

Shikamaru keeps his glare on Sasuke and spits, "You’re the worst. You are the _absolute_ worst."

Temari shuts her eyes tight and snaps, " _Sasuke_ is under the impression that there’s _something_ going on between us. I don’t know _where_ he got the idea–"

"Yeah, I dunno," Sasuke cuts in, "Maybe it was the time you rescued Shikamaru at the Rain border, or that time in the Land of Rivers, or that time in the Land of Grass, or that time in Rain, or that _other_ time in Rain, or that other _other_ time in Rain–"

"Hey, that last time _I_ rescued _her,_ " Shikamaru interrupts, "At least let me keep _one_ scrap of dignity."

Temari’s lips quirk up in a smirk; "Oh from what I remember you threw your last scrap of dignity away when Akimichi went down."

Shikamaru nudges her with his shoulder; "Like _you_ were any better when they grabbed Gaara."

"We _all_ lost it when they grabbed Gaara," Sasuke adds around a mouth full of noodles, "I mean, that almost started a _war–_ "

Naruto’s eyes can’t go any wider; " _What?!_ When did _that_ happen?!"

Sasuke frowns for a moment before pointing a chopstick at Shikamaru; "You tell the story better."

"No I don’t, you–" Sasuke has already shoved another bite of ramen into his mouth, so Shikamaru just sighs, "What a _drag_. Alright… So, a little while before Gaara was elected Kazekage, we got what was _marked_ as a C-Rank Disaster Relief mission for a border village hit by a flood…"

Naruto tries to absorb the story of disaster relief turning into counterterrorism turning into Stopping a War in Five Easy Steps, but he can’t help but focus on how Temari buts in with corrections and Sasuke will make the odd sarcastic comment, how the three of them have a rhythm to their conversation that Naruto can hardly keep up with. They have their own language of inside jokes and anecdotes and mannerisms, and just when Naruto picks up something he remembers from before he left he’s hit by something completely new.

It’s one thing to be thinking about everything he’s missing, day in and day out, for two years. It’s another entirely to actually see it. Naruto’s surrounded by friends, but he feels weirdly alone.

Naruto fills his mouth with ramen so they won’t notice that he doesn’t have anything to say.

* * *

Sakura is in the middle of trimming her hair when a snake comes slithering out of her sink’s drain.

Sakura takes a moment to stare at the snake before asking, "Do you have a message for me, Ishi?"

The little brown adder slithers towards the walls of the sink. Sakura sets her kunai down and dips a hand down for Ishi to slither around, winding her way up her arm and settling around her neck like a scarf. Sakura strokes a line from the top of her head along her spine.

Ishi hisses, "Lord Orochimaru wishes to see you in his audience chamber. The matter is urgent."

Sakura knows Ishi can feel her pulse jump against her belly, but she keeps the rest of her tells locked down; "I see. Tell him I’ll be there as soon as I can."

Ishi periscopes her head up to bump against Sakura’s chin; "Move with haste. He did not seem pleased."

Sakura lets her mouth tilt up at one corner; "Is he ever?"

Ishi’s hiss could be interpreted as a laugh, depending on the ear. She slides back down Sakura’s arm and into the sink, disappearing down the drain. Sakura watches the drain for a moment before she brings her kunai back up to her hair. She finishes trimming the back, then sloppily chops two inches off the bottom of her bangs. She surveys her work. It’s short enough in the back that nobody could get much purchase, but the bangs… She considers pinning them back. After all, she’ll need to see what she’s doing now more than ever.

… No, better not. Pins can fall out. Pins can be used as weapons against her as much as she can use them in a pinch herself.

Sakura steps back from the sink and brushes the last strands and chunks of pink hair off her shirt and leggings. She heads over to her cot, pulling her yukata on and tying her obi tight around her middle. Just as she was taught in the academy, she hides extra weapons in her obi, just in case. She straps her kunai holster to her thigh, pins her weapons pouch to her obi, and pulls on her sandals.

Before she puts on her gloves, Sakura pulls the backpack full of all the other possessions she cared to keep out from under her cot. She rolls up her right sleeve, revealing a still-healing tattoo of her snake summoning contract. Sakura bites her left thumb hard enough to draw blood and drags the blood up along the tattoo, wincing at the stinging pain. She runs through the signs and slaps her palm on the ground. In a burst of smoke, a black-scaled snake as thick as a man’s waist and twice as long as Sakura is tall appears coiled at Sakura’s feet. Even compressed she takes up a quarter of the floor space in her room, though that says more about the size of the room than the size of the snake.

Sakura smiles and kneels down to stroke along her head as she says, "Hello, Kiyohime. Do you remember that day I told you might be coming soon?"

Her tongue flickers out and her voice comes with it; "It is upon us at last, is it? A shame."

"Yes… Yes it is," Sakura sighs, hefting her pack around in front of her, "You remember what I asked of you?"

Kiyohime responds by unhinging her jaw and swallowing Sakura’s backpack.

When she speaks again, it sounds like a human trying to speak while sucking on a hard candy; "Do not be long, or I will swallow you, too."

Sakura just smiles and strokes beneath Kiyohime’s chin; "Thank you, Kiyohime. I won’t."

The snake tastes the air one last time before bursting into pale smoke. As it dissipates, Sakura makes a circuit of her tiny room. Anything she’d usually have squirreled away in secret compartments or seals she just sent off with Kiyohime. Her room looks exactly as it did the day she came to Sound, with it’s bare stone walls and rough dirt floor. Sakura spares a glance toward the cameras by the door. If Kabuto did his part, those should have conveniently gone dark an hour ago.

She walks back to her sink and taps her fist against the porcelain in a Leaf Village code, with combinations of short taps, long taps, and pauses coming together to form letters and words: _E V E R Y T H I N G R E A D Y ?_

Sakura waits for a few moments before her faucet starts to drip, the drips coming in the same code; _A L L C L E A R . L E T ' S G O ._

Sakura nods once and turns on her heel. She stalks towards the door. She pauses as she takes hold of the handle.

Everything she’s been working toward, all her efforts over these two years in the dark will finally bear fruit. She can feel her headband sitting heavy in her weapons’ pouch. She resists it’s call. She can only wear it again when her mission ends, however it ends.

Sakura takes a deep breath and opens the door.

Time to shed her skin.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Joining the ever-growing list of Ancillary Oneshots/Shortfics for this AU that will probably exist at some point: Stopping a War in Five Easy Steps
> 
> Kiyohime is a shoutout to the brilliant "A Snake in the Grass, a Wolf at the Door". She is not meant to be the same snake, but a very similar snake.


	3. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "Like I said, always so impatient," Kakashi begins, only for one of Naruto’s discarded shuriken to burst into a puff of smoke. When the smoke clears, another Naruto is at Kakashi’s back with his own kunai, poised and ready to strike. The grin on Naruto’s face has a feral, ragged edge. Sasuke can’t help one of his own. Naruto’s knack for using clones and transformations for mischief has come into it’s own on the battlefield– He didn’t know a person could even transform themselves into something as small as a standard shuriken, but Naruto has always been full of surprises.
> 
> Kakashi smirks beneath his mask and continues, "Clever, certainly, but still impatient. I didn’t even say 'start' yet."
> 
> Sasuke cracks his knuckles; "Then what are we waiting for?"
> 
> Kakashi lets out a soft chuckle; "Fine then. Ready… Set… Start!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The List of Excuses: Graduating from University, Work, Fire Emblem Three Houses, Final Fantasy 7 Remake, General Quarantine Malaise. We good? We good. Let's groove tonight.

**II.** Naruto bangs his head against the chain link fence, creating a jingling rhythm to soundtrack his groans of, "I _can’t_ be _lieve_ he’s _late_ a _gain_ for the _second time_ to _day!_ "

Sasuke crosses his arms over his chest with a sigh; "I don’t know how he does it. Genuinely I don’t. It’s almost impressive."

" _Seriously?_ You _live with him_ now and you _still_ don’t know why he’s so late all the time," Naruto grouses, "The dude’s gotta be cursed or something, believe it."

Sasuke winces to himself; "Well, I mean… You might not be wrong, but…"

Naruto peers owlishly at him, cocking his head to the side; "What do you mean?"

Sasuke purses his lips, considering Naruto for a few moments, before replying, "Let’s just say he’s lost a lot of people in his life. The specifics are his story to tell, not mine."

Naruto frowns and looks away, muttering, "So I’ll never know. Great."

Sasuke’s brow furrows; "Now what does _that_ –"

There’s a puff of smoke at the top of the fence, out of which comes a sheepish, "Sorry about that, guys, I ran into Hana Inuzuka on the way here and we got to talking about our dogs and–"

"I’ll give you this much, your excuses are starting to get more believable," Sasuke snorts, "Come on, the sun’s going down, let’s get to it."

Kakashi drops down onto the other side of the fence, opening it from the inside and gesturing for them to come in. Sasuke has to pause once he’s through to take the scene in. The three posts, the memorial stone, the wide river, he knows these things better than he knows some people’s faces. Training Ground Three. Where it all started.

Naruto’s eyes are doing a circuit of the grounds, wide with wonder; "Man… Now _this_ takes me back…"

"Yeah," Sasuke breathes, "It’s been a while for me, too."

Lately it’s been easier to keep his mind occupied and focused on the present, but the one downside to Naruto’s return is how it brings back so many memories. There had been three of them the last time Sasuke was here. They’d gathered to wait for Kakashi, and when he’d popped in he’d told them they were just gonna train, since they didn’t have a mission. Almost as an afterthought, he’d mentioned that they were breaking early to have a celebratory lunch with Team Ten to celebrate Shikamaru’s promotion to chūnin.

Naruto had been loudly flabbergasted by the news. Sasuke had been quietly surprised and slightly disappointed that Shikamaru was the only promotion. But then he’d gotten a glance at Sakura. She’d been staring into space, face blank, eyes unmoving. He’d tried to ask her what was wrong. When she said she was fine, it sounded like she was saying it from the bottom of a deep dark pit.

She’d stayed that way all through training, until her chakra control faltered ( _Sakura’s_ chakra control, Sakura _never_ faltered) and she dropped into the river. Kakashi had sent her home, because something was wrong, but she wasn’t about to tell them what. They should’ve pressed her, shouldn’t have relented until she let it out and they could’ve found _something_ to say, _something_ to _do_ that would’ve made her _stay_ but–

Sasuke digs his nails into his palm. There’s no point in thinking about the past. Not when the future is still wide open.

Naruto turns to Kakashi, arms folded behind his head; "So are we gonna get on with this test or are we gonna keep sitting around?"

Kakashi’s mask warps in a smirk and he replies, "Always so impatient. But I suppose you’re right," he reaches into his weapons pouch and pulls out a familiar pair of bells, "It’s about time we got started."

Sasuke and Naruto’s brows both hop up as they exchange surprised glances; "Wait, are we really–?"

"Since we’re already reminiscing, it seemed appropriate," Kakashi replies, jingling the bells for emphasis, "It’s the same basic test. You have until sunrise to get these bells away from me. All the same rules apply. No techniques or weapons are off limits, and–"

"We remember the drill," Naruto cuts in, tightening his headband, "We gotta be ready to kill you, or we can kiss our chances of passing goodbye."

Sasuke ties his jacket around his waist and pulls on his gloves as he adds, "If you think you’re gonna get away with _reading_ while fighting us again you’ve got another thing coming."

"Oh I’m more than aware of that," Kakashi replies, pulling his headband up to reveal the Sharingan, "I get the feeling I’m going to have my hands full with the two of you."

Naruto looks to Sasuke from the corner of his eye. His mouth quirks up in a smirk, and before Sasuke can decipher what that means Naruto’s reaching into his weapons pouch and tossing a handful of shuriken at Kakashi.

Kakashi immediately hits the deck, tossing his own bevy of projectiles at Naruto’s feet. Naruto leaps over them and crosses his fingers in the sign for Shadow Clone Jutsu, summoning a clone into the air above his head. As the clone falls Naruto forms the ram sign, his body transforming into a massive shuriken. The clone grabs Naruto-the-Shuriken out of the air and lobs him at Kakashi.

Kakashi stays low, Naruto-the-Shuriken flying over his head. Naruto transforms back in midair and lands behind Kakashi, reaching his hands into his jacket and drawing them out with the _tekagi-shuko_ Sasuke sent Naruto off with firmly affixed to his hands. Naruto lets out a canine snarl and slashes for Kakashi. Kakashi nimbly dances around the strike, grabbing Naruto by the wrist and twisting his arm around his back with one hand while the other puts a kunai to Naruto’s throat.

"Like I said, always so impatient," Kakashi begins, only for one of Naruto’s discarded shuriken to burst into a puff of smoke. When the smoke clears, another Naruto is at Kakashi’s back with his own kunai, poised and ready to strike. The grin on Naruto’s face has a feral, ragged edge. Sasuke can’t help one of his own. Naruto’s knack for using clones and transformations for mischief has come into it’s own on the battlefield– He didn’t know a person could even transform themselves into something as small as a standard shuriken, but Naruto has always been full of surprises.

Kakashi smirks beneath his mask and continues, "Clever, certainly, but still impatient. I didn’t even say 'start' yet."

Sasuke cracks his knuckles; "Then what are we waiting for?"

Kakashi lets out a soft chuckle; "Fine then. Ready… Set… Start!"

* * *

Orochimaru curses his own flair for the poetic as Sakura comes through the door to his audience chamber. Bathed in the cold blue light from the fish tank, strange shadows flickering across her form, she looks exactly like the girl Kabuto brought to him two years ago. She’s still a tiny thing, barely four inches taller than when she arrived and certainly a few pounds lighter. Her clothes, feminine and dark and floral, only make her seem all the more fragile. Like he could reach out and snap her like a twig with his bare hands.

And he intends to. But he knows she won’t make it easy for him.

Sakura’s eyes alight on him across the long oak table and she bows from the waist; "You sent for me, Sir?"

Orochimaru balances his chin atop his steepled fingers as he replies, "I did indeed. It seems our dear Jūgo has decided to go on walkabout. He escaped from his holding cell ten minutes ago."

Sakura’s eyes go just the right amount of wide and she gasps, "What?! Ten minutes ago–?! W-we need to get out there, we need to find him before he–!"

" _Don’t_ play _dumb_ ," Orochimaru snaps, Sakura freezing in place at the sound of his voice, "You’re far too smart to be any good at it."

Sakura could’ve made a beautiful actress in another life. She doesn’t break character for even a moment, choking on her words and staring at him in mute apprehension. Her eyes swim between fear of Jūgo and fear of him.

"S-sir?"

Orochimaru slowly rises from the table and stalks toward her at a creeping pace; "The only cells capable of containing Jūgo are those that have been made specifically for him. He has been perfectly capable of breaking out for _months_ now. And yet, he hasn’t. He chooses today. Would you like to know what _else_ has been happening today, Little Flower?"

Sakura takes a half-step back; "I-I don’t–"

Orochimaru’s eyes narrow and he forms half a seal. He grabs hold of Sakura’s curse mark, squeezing down. Sakura’s eyes go wide and her teeth clench, a cry forcing itself out through the cracks as she nearly falls. One hand catches the back of a chair and the other flies to her shoulder in a vain attempt to staunch the flow of pain.

"Kabuto’s mission report is running horrifically late," Orochimaru begins, "Suigetsu has disappeared into the pipes. Prisoners are being shuffled around like cards on orders I didn’t give. And all the while the security cameras and wire taps are all going haywire, all at once. Coincidence?"

"Lord O–" Sakura cuts herself off with a sharp scream as Orochimaru presses on the mark. She collapses to one knee, eyes screwing shut. Orochimaru pauses without his own approval as he catches tears beading at the corners of her eyes.

He forces himself forward and snarls, "Absolutely _not._ I wonder, just how _stupid_ do you think I am? I knew you’d betray me one day, but to think you’d do it this _blatantly…_ Suffice to say, I’m disappointed, Little Flower. I thought I trained you better than this. I thought I made _sure_ to teach you _never_ to underestimate your opponent."

Sakura’s knee buckles and she crumples into the fetal position. The sound she lets loose is a broken, high-pitched sob. Orochimaru stops above her body, the rest of his monologue caught in his throat. Is this it? Is this _really_ all it takes to make her revert to being a scared little girl? Is pressing down on her sorest spot until it nearly bursts really enough to break down all of Sakura’s carefully constructed barriers?

… No.

Of course it isn’t.

Because _he_ trained her.

That realization gives Orochimaru a precious half-second to notice the water in the fish tank starting to bubble and churn. He lets go of Sakura’s curse mark and brings his arms up to block his eyes a heartbeat before the entire tank explodes. Broken glass and water come spraying out from all sides, pelting and drenching him in equal measure. He blindly reacts to the sound of water flowing and something sharp cutting through the air, a hand flying up to painfully parry a blade. Orochimaru whirls to the source, eyes opening to see Suigetsu’s body flowing up and out of the water coating the table.

The boy grins with a mouth full of serrated teeth; "This has been a _long time_ coming, Old Timer."

Suigetsu’s hands soar through signs. His feet dissolve, melding with the water covering the table and floor. It all lights up with chakra, rising up in floating globules that shudder before firing shards of glass like dozens of fragile bullets. Orochimaru ducks and rolls beneath the worst of it, a few splinters clipping the back of his neck as he comes up at the head of the table. Before Orochimaru can form his first sign, Suigetsu flips off the table, landing at Sakura’s side and dragging her over to the wall.

Just in time for the door to burst inward, Jūgo roaring through it. His arms shift into big meaty claws that let him effortlessly pick up the conference table and turn it onto it’s side. His flesh shifts on his elbows and the back of his calves, creating vents that jet out compressed air and send Jūgo firing at Orochimaru like a rocket. The table hits Orochimaru head on, knocking the wind out of him and pushing him all the way to the back of the room. Orochimaru’s back collides painfully with the wall and his head knocks against the table.

He’s only between a rock and a hard place for a bare moment. Orochimaru pushes against the table and finds no resistance. The second it falls away is the second Sakura finishes a round of hand signs. Flower petals burst from her body and fill the room like smoke. Through the haze of pink Orochimaru can barely make out the three traitors scrambling for the doorway. The petals that touch Orochimaru’s skin dissolve into chakra, forcing his eyelids to droop, but he knows this trick of Sakura’s too well to fall for it ever again.

He forms half a seal and snarls, " _Release._ "

The petals all burst into threads of chakra before they can hit the floor, giving Orochimaru a clear view of Sakura’s dress fluttering around the corner as she scurries out into the hall. For a moment, Orochimaru just stares at the doorway. There’s no way that was the whole plan. He trained Sakura better than that, and Suigetsu at least is intelligent enough to know there’s no outrunning him in his own hideout. No, that was just the opening gambit. The real fight starts the second he leaves the audience chamber.

Orochimaru stalks after them, hissing under his breath, "Ready… Set… _Start._ "

* * *

There’s a puff of smoke. Naruto lurches forward as the hands that were holding him in place disappear. When the smoke clears, Kakashi is nowhere to be found. Naruto dismisses his clone and clicks his tongue against his teeth as he scans the area for some sign of him. No tracks, no sound. Naruto channels chakra into his nose, sharpening his sense of smell, and doesn’t even pick up a scent. It’s like he was never there.

Naruto mutters through his teeth, "Okay, all this deja vu is starting to get old."

He glances over at Sasuke. He’s standing with a hand on one hip and the other at his chin, brow furrowed in thought. Naruto opens his mouth to ask what’s on his mind, but quickly thinks better of it. Sasuke takes being interrupted when he’s thinking _very_ poorly. Or, at least, he _used_ to. Maybe that’s changed too.

Sasuke drums his fingers on his hip as he mutters, "Deja vu, huh…"

He stays like that for a few moments more before perking up and, with a snap of his fingers, declaring, "I know where he is."

Naruto nods and asks, "Alright, how do we flush him out?"

Sasuke smirks over his shoulder at Naruto; "Brace yourself."

Sasuke stomps the ground. The ground _breaks_.

The earth rumbles beneath Naruto’s feet, nearly knocking him on his ass, as a jagged fissure opens up in front of Sasuke. Sections of ground jut up and out of place, soil flying everywhere. Cracks spread all the way to the river, breaking the riverbank and sending water flowing into the broken ground. When the dust clears and Naruto can get his balance again, the fissure is easily twenty feet long and thirty feet deep. Ten feet into all that broken ground, wedged between two displaced spears of stone, is a wide-eyed Kakashi.

Naruto gulps. He’d thought that _maybe_ Grandma Tsunade would teach Sasuke how to do whatever it is she does to be so strong, but him being _this_ strong only after two years didn’t even cross his mind. What _is_ crossing his mind _now_ is how it would feel to be on the receiving end of a blow like that.

Suffice to say, the idea of going one-on-one with Sasuke just got a lot less appealing.

"I appreciate a throwback, Sensei," Sasuke calls to Kakashi, "But if you keep pulling the same tricks you did two years ago this is gonna end _badly_ for you."

The surprised look on Kakashi’s face quickly drops; "True. But if you keep _expecting_ those same old tricks, Sasuke, this is going to end badly for _you._ "

The center of Kakashi’s stomach starts to glow red hot, quickly spreading out across his whole body. Sasuke backpedals and Naruto runs in to grab him by his collar and drag him back. Kakashi bursts into flames. The aftershock of chakra sends both Naruto and Sasuke flying backwards. They hit the ground and bounce, rolling for a few more feet before coming to a stop. They dust themselves off and get to their feet to find scorched Earth, burning grass, and no Kakashi.

"Well," Naruto remarks, "We flushed _something_ out alright."

That dusting of pink has found it’s way back to the tips of Sasuke’s ears; "Okay, I’ll admit it– What I know about Kakashi is nowhere _near_ as dangerous as what he knows about me."

* * *

The moment he exits the audience chamber Orochimaru catches a glimpse of Sakura, Suigetsu, and Jūgo out of the corner of his left eye. He turns just in time to see them wheeling around a corner and out of sight. He rolls his eyes, but creates a shadow clone and sends it running after them anyway. Whether those are clones or an illusion, it won’t do to give the game up to Sakura just yet. While his shadow clone goes left, Orochimaru goes right. As he stalks down the hall he opens his chakra sense, searching for signatures that hum in rhythm with his own.

His shadow clone lights up strong and bright, like the fluorescents above his head, several yards behind him. Hovering a layer below him and a few yards to the right is a fragment of his own chakra, burning just as bright as his clone. It almost captures his attention before another signature, identical to it in every way, brightens the lower edge of Orochimaru’s sensing range.

Orochimaru leans against the wall, shutting one eye. Like this, with half the world drowned in darkness, it’s _slightly_ easier to focus on the floating flames of his own chakra. It’s still impossible to definitively tell the genuine Sakura apart from her clone and _his_ clone by sensation alone. With their chakra as divided as it is, the three signatures are nearly identical.

Orochimaru’s lips twist in something that’s not angry enough to be a snarl and not proud enough to be a grin; "Clever girl."

Sensing alone won’t give him answers, but he’s never been one to rely on just one tool. Orochimaru sketches a rough mental map of the base over top of the three signatures. He designed this hideout himself, he could draw it’s blueprints from memory and navigate it blind. The closest signature is making it’s way toward the mortuary lab on this level, moving quickly and with purpose. That’s definitely his clone, chasing dutifully after a genjutsu.

The second signature is fifteen feet down and ten feet to his right. That part of the second layer is devoted to R&D. Narrowing it down section by section, room by room, she should be in the archives, in the temperature controlled vault. He clicks his tongue against his teeth. Clever, clever, but too clever by half. Obviously she didn’t think he’d realize where she’d sent her clone until he was already there. There’s no _way_ the girl would bring a fight to the archives. Not after the disaster in the Earth Country mountains.

The third signature is at the very bottom of the hideout. The lowest layer is provision storage and the reservoir. That signature is straining at the very edge of his perception, but close enough that he can draw out the map around it. After a moment, he’s sure that signature is in the reservoir chamber. The room has plenty of space to maneuver and nothing precious, breakable, or alive stored inside. It’s as out of the way as it can be in a closed system like this, giving her and her _friends_ more than time enough to prepare while he chases down her diversions. Clever, clever, but deeply predictable.

He should’ve broken her of that long ago.

Orochimaru channels Earth Chakra around his body and drops into the ground, turning it into a fine sand and digging down toward the third signature. He flies through the ground like a missile through the air. In a blast of sand he breaches the ceiling, falling into a room with a double height ceiling dominated by a deep, dark pool of water. A forest of columns keeps the ceiling from collapsing in on itself, while massive pipes and water pumps snake out of the pool and onto the catwalk surrounding it, pulling the water from the ground into the rest of the hideout.

Orochimaru only catches a glimpse of Sakura on that catwalk glancing up at him, green eyes going wide, before he lands directly on top of her. They go crashing to the ground, Orochimaru with a knee on Sakura’s stomach and a hand wrapped around her throat.

He grins down at her and hisses through his teeth, "A clever trick, Little Flower, but I know you far too well to fall for it."

* * *

The sun has just dipped below the horizon when Naruto and Sasuke find Kakashi again. It only takes one strike for Sasuke to uproot the tree he’s hiding in and knock him out of it’s branches, sending him plummeting to the ground. Naruto pounces for Kakashi, claws out. Kakashi rolls away and kips up, lightning fast. Naruto tucks and rolls, coming up on the other side of the clearing while Sasuke blocks off the entrance.

"It seems you have me cornered," Kakashi drawls, Sharingan spinning as he shifts into Gai’s idle stance, "What _ever_ shall I do?"

Sasuke just huffs out a breath, catching Naruto’s eye over Kakashi’s shoulder and calling to him, "I go high, you go low!"

Kakashi grins behind his mask; "Fair enough then. Lesson One– Taijutsu!"

Sasuke made a big mistake saying he’d go in high. Kakashi immediately drops low and sweeps a kick at his ankles. Sasuke deftly avoids the strike, swerving out of the way, and his Sharingan blazes to life. He brings a leg up in a perfect imitation of one of Tsunade’s earthquake axe kicks and Kakashi realizes _he_ made a mistake going low. Kakashi rolls out of the way seconds before Sasuke’s heel connects with empty ground and cracks it in a one-foot radius. He surges up and clips Sasuke’s jaw with an uppercut, making his teeth clack painfully together.

Sasuke turns his stagger into a tactical retreat, darting out of Kakashi’s reach. Kakashi looks over his shoulder to see Naruto sprinting in, keeping low, and diving to tackle his legs out from under him. Kakashi jukes out of the way and Naruto handily turns his landing into a roll. Kakashi’s arms shoot out and he grabs hold of Naruto by the collar and the back of his jacket. Kakashi only rethinks his plan of throwing Naruto _at_ Sasuke when he actually tries to heft the boy up and realizes he’s _much_ heavier than he thought he’d be. Naruto takes advantage of the momentary shock, digging in his heels and lurching forward.

Kakashi stumbles. That’s all the opening Naruto needs.

In seconds Naruto flips the grapple around, hip-tossing Kakashi to Sasuke with a call of, "He’s all yours!"

Sasuke knocks Kakashi to the ground with a roundhouse kick that rattles his whole skeleton. Kakashi forces his eyes open just in time to see Sasuke making a fist and driving it down towards his head. Kakashi’s Sharingan spins and he breaks out a move he copied from Sasuke himself, using his core muscles to keep his shoulders on the ground and whip his legs up and around in a whirling kick that knocks Sasuke back and allows Kakashi to flip back to his feet.

He doesn’t have time to breathe. Naruto letting out another war cry gives Kakashi a precious few seconds to turn and see him darting in low and striking high, slashing with those steel claws for his eyes. Kakashi tucks his chin against his chest on reflex and Naruto scores the surface of his headband instead of tearing his eyes out of his skull. A disturbing thought, but at least he’s taking the test seriously.

There’s a crackle of lightning and Kakashi’s instincts take over, his head swerving out of the way of Sasuke’s palm thrust as it whizzes past his ear. Kakashi pivots around in time to see Sasuke closing the distance between them, one hand glowing soft cyan and the other raining sparks. He bobs and weaves around two more palm thrusts, the chakra on Sasuke’s hands making the hair on the back of his neck stand on end. Sasuke fakes a third left hook before juking to the right, revealing Naruto sprinting into range with his claws dragging through the dirt.

Naruto wrenches up with his claws, a gust of chakra-laced wind following the movement of his arms and kicking up a cloud of dust directly into Kakashi’s face. Kakashi’s arm flies up to cover his Sharingan– he doesn’t have time to protect both eyes. Dust hits his normal eye and it slams shut, stinging like a motherfucker, but Kakashi backpedals out of the cloud and reveals his Sharingan again. He’s back in business, just in time to see Naruto bursting through the dust and slashing for his throat.

Kakashi sneers beneath his mask, "Alright, fine, two can play this game," before slamming his sole right into Naruto’s crotch.

Naruto’s face twists into an expression of complete and total agony for the split second before he bursts into smoke. A sandaled foot comes flying out through the haze and hits Kakashi in the chin, the force of the blow sending him flying up into the air. Kakashi is well above the forest canopy when an iron-strong grip wraps around his torso, flips him upside down, and starts to _spin._

His heart skips a beat at the sound of Sasuke’s voice crying out, " _Primary Lotus!_ "

They’re corkscrewing toward the ground, quicker than thought, but Kakashi’s been trapped in this move by Gai enough times to have a counter. He uses all his strength to wrench one arm out of Sasuke’s hold and thrust a hand out toward the ground. He molds chakra in his chest and sends it surging down his arm, coming out of his palm in a blast of compressed air that hits the ground a breath before they can. The burst of air hits them from below, shocking Sasuke into breaking his grip and sending them both scattering away. Naruto catches Sasuke out of the air and Kakashi lets himself fly into the trees, crashing through branches and eventually bouncing to a stop on the ground, several meters away.

Kakashi rolls to his feet and listens for their voices. They’re far away, but Naruto’s sheer volume makes hearing them laughably easy.

"You good? That move always took it out of Bushy Brows…"

"I’m fine, come on! He left a trail!"

Kakashi spares a moment to smirk to himself. They’re skilled in Taijutsu, certainly, but neither one of them used the opportunity to lift the bells off him. Even with Naruto throwing dirt in his eyes, they’re still fighting unbearably straight.

So it falls to him to fight dirty.

* * *

"A clever trick, Little Flower, but I know you far too well to fall for it."

The faint wisps of triumph in Orochimaru’s chest are blown away by a roar of, " _GET OFF HER!_ "

Orochimaru’s head whips towards the sound to find Jūgo lunging off a massive pipe, serrated claws slashing for his throat. Orochimaru lets go of Sakura’s throat, rolling up and off of her just in time to avoid getting shredded. A piston-like growth comes jutting out of Jūgo’s elbow, drawing back and compressing in time with a whirling strike that tears four long gashes in Orochimaru’s skin, revealing glimpses of the body beneath.

The force of the blow knocks him off his feet, but Orochimaru sends chakra surging down his arm, dislocating his joints and stretching the limb out to grab one of the pillars in the reservoir. He retracts his arm with a sound like a rubber band snapping and sends chakra down into his feet, catching himself in a crouch on the pillar’s side. The second he lands he catches sight of Sakura sprinting towards one of the pipes. Orochimaru braces his back against the pillar and throws his arms out toward the catwalk, a pair of white vipers twice as long as he is tall leaping from his sleeves and striking for Jūgo and Sakura.

A jet of water bursts up from between Orochimaru’s pillar and the catwalk. Metal whistles through the air and blood dyes the water red as his snakes split in half. Orochimaru lets their corpses fall into the reservoir, rolling out of the way as the jet changes trajectory and splashes into the pillar. Suigetsu comes charging out, a katana and wakizashi in each hand, and strikes for Orochimaru’s throat. He ducks beneath the wakizashi and jukes out of the katana’s reach, just in time to spot Jūgo growing two more boosters on his back and come flying across the gap. He lands just above Orochimaru, hitting hard enough to shake the pillar.

So they have him in a pincer. But a ninja doesn’t get to fifty without knowing exactly how to turn those to their advantage. Orochimaru fakes a too-late dodge and lets Jūgo’s claws clip the side of his ear. He listens for the sound of air jetting out of Jūgo’s elbow piston and hits the deck, rolling around the pillar to come up on the other side. He catches sight of Suigetsu’s half-liquified form flowing around to meet him, just in time for them both to feel the impact of Jūgo’s fist hitting the stone. Cracks spiderweb around the pillar, crawling all the way up to the ceiling and knocking fragments of stone loose.

Suigetsu swings to take his head off his shoulders. Orochimaru unhinges his jaw, Kusanagi rocketing up his throat to parry the blow. He spits the blade all the way up, grabbing the hilt and follows his parry with a riposte. He takes the ends off a lock of Suigetsu’s hair, but doesn’t scratch his skin. Suigetsu flows around two more stabs before whirling in, forcing Orochimaru further down the pillar as he ducks and dodges around his wide, frenetic strikes. What advantage Orochimaru has in reach with Kusanagi is quickly brought down to Earth by Suigetsu’s lightning fast parrying reflexes, knocking the blade away with the wakizashi and slashing across his stomach with the katana.

Suigetsu forces him down nearly to the water’s surface before calling over his shoulder, "Jūgo! Now!"

Orochimaru stabs for Suigetsu’s throat, his blade punching straight through water. Suigetsu melts into a deluge and splashes down into the reservoir, just in time for Jūgo to let out another mighty roar and slam another fist into the pillar. The cracks beneath Orochimaru’s feet widen out into massive fissures, chunks of rock raining down around him. He tosses his sword from his left hand to his right, stretching out his right hand painfully far to grasp the edge of the catwalk. He pulls himself off the pillar just before it crumbles, snapping back to dangle off the edge of the catwalk.

He flips up onto it, catching the sound of a booster firing off and rolling out of the way of a whirling, _flying_ kick from Jūgo. Jūgo lands heavy and clumsy, leaving himself wide open. Orochimaru spins to his feet and strikes in the same fluid motion. Jūgo’s attention is split three ways between regaining his balance, bringing a hand up to block, and shifting that hand into a form that actually _can_ block a blade. He gets the first two, but is two slow for the third. Kusanagi’s blade cuts three of Jūgo’s clawed fingers off at the root.

Beneath Jūgo’s piercing shriek Orochimaru catches the sound of water crashing onto the catwalk to his left. He swings around and catches Suigetsu half-solidified, piercing through his liquid stomach and dragging Kusanagi up to cut into his flesh and blood chest. Suigetsu jerks away, a jet of pressurized water blasting from the wound. It pushes Orochimaru back and gives Suigetsu the room to stagger out of reach. He brings his swords up into a guard stance, hardly hiding the pained grimace on his face as blood spreads through the liquid parts of his body.

Orochimaru can’t give chase, not when Jūgo comes bounding right up into his face. The remaining fingers on his maimed hand fuse together into a sharp, drill-like point and stab for his eye. Orochimaru effortlessly parries the strike down and away. The spike rams itself into the catwalk, pinning Jūgo in place. Orochimaru grins to himself– Why not help the boy out of that predicament? Before Jūgo can pull himself out, Orochimaru swings Kusanagi down and takes off the arm at the elbow.

Blood sprays out across the ground and Jūgo yowls like an angry cat. Orochimaru’s eyes sweep over the battlefield. Despite their brave faces, these boys are each a blow away from death. That’s not as comforting as it should be. Sakura is still nowhere to be seen, and she’s at her most dangerous when she’s out of sight.

"Come out come out wherever you are, Little Flower," he calls, voice reverberating out across the massive room, "Or your _friends_ are going to lose more than their limbs!"

* * *

The moon isn’t yet as full as it could be, so it falls to Sasuke to take point as he and Naruto creep through the woods. The Sharingan takes the low light and turns it up, letting Sasuke pick out every broken branch on the trees above them and every scuffed footprint in the dirt below. He moves slowly and cautiously, half to keep Kakashi from getting wise too soon, and half because he has little choice. It’s not often he opens the Inner Gates, the process still leaves him a bit dizzy.

He glances over his shoulder to Naruto, who’s aping Sasuke’s careful stride so perfectly it’s like he’s the one with a Sharingan. Sasuke can only be impressed at how well Naruto’s doing. It seems like Jiraiya finally managed to beat some notion of ninja having to be _stealthy_ into the dumbass. Still couldn’t get him out of the orange, though.

Sasuke turns his attention back to the forest. Kakashi’s trail has grown sparse, with only a snapped twig here and there letting Sasuke know he’s even on the right track. Sasuke channels chakra into his nose and his ears. Kakashi’s scent is faint, and the sounds of rustling in the foliage are too distant for Sasuke to tell a grown man from a squirrel or a skunk. To coin a phrase, it’s quiet– Too quiet. Or, rather, not quiet enough. It’s like Kakashi’s making sure to just leave _enough_ of a trail to keep them on a set path.

"I don’t like this," Sasuke whispers, "This feels like–"

There’s a loud rustle from behind a large oak tree’s trunk. And there would be the other shoe. 

A skinny, feminine form made from molded Yin chakra comes staggering out from behind the tree. The projected girl’s ragged hair and smooth skin are marred by bloodstains and lacerations as senbon and kunai stick out of her like the needles on a cactus. Her breath is coming in high-pitched wheezes, and she collapses to her knees in a heap.

Her voice is familiar, but two years too young; "S-sasuke, Naruto, I’m so–"

Sasuke’s hand snaps into half a seal and he snarls, " _Release,_ " the image of the battered Sakura dissolving into threads of chakra.

Naruto’s face twists into a scowl and he voices Sasuke’s own thoughts; "That was a dirty trick, Kakashi-sensei."

Kakashi’s voice comes from a tree Sasuke’s sure he isn’t in; "Trust me, you haven’t _seen_ dirty. Lesson Number Two– Genjutsu!"

Sasuke’s world suddenly shifts from dull red to an eye-searingly bright crimson. He’s not just seeing every leaf on the trees anymore but every cell in every leaf on every tree. His own cry of pain is louder than a train whistle in his ears and Sasuke can suddenly feel every fiber of his shirt scratching at his skin like a thousand tiny claws. The constant low ache of his knee is a sharp, piercing pain that throbs in time with his heartbeat. He _knows_ it’s a genjutsu, it’s the most blatant and transparent genjutsu Sasuke’s ever seen used in a combat situation, but that doesn’t change the fact that the whole world around him is too loud too bright too rough _too much–_

Sasuke’s reflexes take over and his Sharingan shuts off. The world turns from a bright red to a slightly-less-bright blue. It barely helps. Sasuke can still hear every night bird in the forest like they’re chirping in his ear, can still feel every bead of sweat pooling on his hands beneath his gloves, can _taste_ the _inside of his own mouth_. Sasuke isn’t sure what reflex will finally win the day, the urge to tear all his skin off or the urge to vomit on the grass.

Naruto’s voice is loud most days, but now it’s piercing enough to shatter a whole glass house; "Hold on, I’ve got you!"

Sasuke can feel Naruto pulling down the high collar of his shirt with one hand, exposing the back of his neck to the freezing night air. Something cold and wet touches Sasuke’s skin, making him hiss through his teeth as Naruto draws some kind of symbol on the back of his neck. The electric burn of chakra surging through the mark makes for a half second of the most searing, agonizing pain Sasuke has ever felt in his life.

But before Sasuke has time to scream, everything ratchets down. Sasuke slowly opens his eyes to the view of a perfectly normal forest at night. The birds and crickets chirp faintly in the distance, and Sasuke can bear the feeling of his own clothes on his skin again. Sasuke’s brow furrows and he reaches around to feel the back of his neck. He runs his fingers along tender first degree burns in the shape of a rudimentary seal.

Sasuke turns to Naruto, eyes wide and eyebrows high; "What did you do?"

Naruto grins and holds up one hand, missing it’s claw and bleeding from his index fingertip; "The Pervy Sage taught me some fuinjutsu! The one I put on you’s pretty handy, it activates if it senses Yin chakra in your brain and breaks the genjutsu for you! Look, see," Naruto turns around and pulls down the collar of his jacket, revealing burns in the same basic shape, "I had one on me, and it popped off when that first genjutsu of Sakura came out. Downside is though that it’s a one and done kind of thing."

Sasuke smirks as he pulls off his gloves, puts one hand on his own neck, the other on Naruto’s, and channels healing chakra through both; "Leave it to you to both pull off a trick _and_ have it blow up in your face."

If he were still under that genjutsu Sasuke’s sure he could hear Naruto rolling his eyes; "Leave it to _you_ to not just say 'thanks'. Tsunade didn’t beat any manners into you while I was gone, huh?"

Sasuke just grins; "She _did,_ actually. You _clearly_ don’t remember how bad I _used_ to be."

Sasuke had meant that as a joke, but Naruto’s shoulders tighten in response to it, and Sasuke has to bite his lip to keep in a sigh. He’s starting to get really sick of Naruto _thinking_ he can keep things to himself while broadcasting them with his whole body. There’ll be time for that later. Now, they have to get those bells.

When he’s finished, Sasuke gently smacks the spot he just healed and says, "Come on. We’re burning moonlight," before turning on his heel and heading deeper into the woods. Naruto falls in step behind him like nothing happened.

* * *

"Come out come out wherever you are, Little Flower, or your _friends_ are going to lose more than their limbs!"

Orochimaru’s world explodes into a kaleidoscope of sound and color. All he can hear is at least ten different songs all blasting over each other, each one loud and grating in it’s own unique way. The dull and washed out reservoir chamber is now a blinding bright rainbow constantly shifting from one color to the next. Spots dance across Orochimaru’s vision and he can’t fight the reflex to cover one ear in the vain hope it’ll block out _some_ of this _noise_. It’s a genjutsu, of course it is, but Orochimaru’s instincts could care less about that. He can barely pick out Suigetsu and Jūgo as they whirl with color at the same pace as the room around them.

He reaches into his own mind and can feel the fine, intricate web of Yin chakra laced tight around it. He curses Sakura through grit teeth. This isn’t just _one_ genjutsu, it’s a cocktail of _several_ woven into a fine tapestry. Unraveling one would be simple. Unraveling them _all_ would require concentration and time.

Orochimaru feels the rush of wind and just barely ducks out of the way, something sharp slicing a shallow line across the back of his neck. He doesn’t have that kind of time.

He tries and mostly fails to pivot around hard, blunt blows from Jūgo’s fist and fine, sharp slices from Suigetsu’s swords. No matter how much he’s trained his other senses he can’t deny the fact that he’s a human who spends ninety percent of his time relying on his eyes and ears. With them both overloaded, he’s just a touch too slow, a touch too close, overwhelmed enough to die from a thousand tiny mistakes.

There are options here, but all of them come with costs he’d rather not pay. He could play as defensively and evasively as possible to buy himself time to break this the old fashioned way, but that’s a waste of time he can’t afford to lose. He could hunt down Sakura and break her concentration– she has to be close to be working something this intense, but that’s yet another waste of time. She has his eyes and ears hostage, she can be wherever she wants.

He could let one of these blows land, the pain of it shocking him out of the genjutsu. But making sure he’d _survive_ that gamble will cost him quite a bit of chakra. In the long run, that’s not a bad idea. Unimpressive as they are, his chakra reserves are still deeper than those of these children. But all three of them know that, and they don’t want this fight to _have_ a long run.

Orochimaru sneers and starts gathering chakra. So it will fall to him to teach these children the value of patience. He sinks deeper into the whirling vortex of sensation, letting his dodges turn into staggers and his parries into random flailing. A blade of pressurized water pierces Orochimaru’s side. One instant of horrific, rending pain is all it takes to break the genjutsu, his world dropping back into washed out neutrals peppered with bright spots of orange, pink, and silver. He releases all his gathered chakra as the empty shell that _was_ his body an instant ago is sliced in two at the waist, flopping onto the ground in two clean pieces.

He makes them wait for it. One heartbeat, two, three, four. Jūgo is pacing frantic circles. Suigetsu is shifting from foot to foot in place, head cocked to the side. Sakura, perched upon a massive pipe, watches his body like a hungry owl.

Suigetsu frowns and mutters, “Was that it?”

Orochimaru grins. Of _course_ it wasn’t. He reaches up and unhinges the jaw of his substitute, pulling it open as wide as he can. Jūgo and Suigetsu both choke on expletives and backpedal out of reach as he drags himself out of his own mouth, body whole and dripping with viscous fluid. He looks up through his hair, eyes locked on Sakura.

“How nice of you to finally join us,” he rasps.

With a flick of his wrist Kusanagi floats up and off the floor. It slices through the air, straight for Sakura, who lets out a gasp and leaps off the pipes onto the ground. His mouth opens, wide as it can go, and a torrent of snakes come pouring out. The countless snakes race across the ground, spreading out wide enough to carpet the whole catwalk.

Suigetsu lets out a strangled, “Holy _fuck,_ ” and starts sprinting back towards the pipes. Jūgo snarls and shifts his stump into a scythe-like appendage. He swipes at the oncoming tide of snakes, but for every head he lops off two more pop up in its place. It’s only when Sakura lets out a high, sharp whistle that he grits his teeth and starts doubling back.

Sakura leaps and rolls out of the way of Kusanagi’s strikes, somehow managing to keep whistling as she does. The sound loops and whirls, and as it twirls around through the ears of both Orochimaru and his snakes the ground beneath them almost seems to soften. It feels like he’s trying to move his wall of snakes through molasses. They struggle against the soft ground, crawling over each other and getting twisted up into knots. The tide slows just enough to put some distance between the snakes and their prey.

Orochimaru dissects Sakura’s technique in record time. She’s using a sound-based genjutsu, this one far less complex than her previous attempt. In an instant he’s formed half a seal and broken it’s hold over his mind, the catwalk firming up again beneath his feet. The snakes, however, are still struggling, still twisting and writhing. 

_Of course_. That’s the benefit of a _sound_ -based jutsu, you can affect anything with _ears_. That sharp whistle was a signal, prepping Suigetsu and Jūgo to break it before it could slow their steps. But the snakes are simple creatures. They’re worse than useless right now, unless Orochimaru takes the time and the chakra to break the genjutsu for each and every one of them.

His eyes zero in on Sakura. There’s a much easier way to do that, this time. He leaves the snakes to their own devices, instead focusing on Kusanagi. Sakura pirouettes around the blade as it thrusts for her chest, dipping and ducking beneath two more swipes. Her eyes briefly flicker over to his before she runs through a set of signs and she disappears from sight. Orochimaru rolls his eyes and reaches out with his chakra sense, finding the fragment of his own power exactly where Sakura had been standing seconds before. Still underestimating her opponent. It’s like he didn’t teach her anything at all.

He sends Kusanagi soaring around her in dizzying circles, coming closer and closer, his misses nearer and nearer with every passing breath. The blade passes so close it forces Sakura to drop the Greater Invisibility, breaking her concentration in order to dodge the blow. Orochimaru sends the blade hurting backward, hilt first, toward her throat. Sakura dodges the hilt, but doesn’t see the sword pause in midair and thrust forward, stabbing through the back of her throat.

She explodes into petals. Her high, warbling whistle keeps spiraling through the air.

Orochimaru’s eyes go wide. No. No no no no. _No._ She _didn’t_ trick his chakra sense, there’s absolutely– He bites the side of his tongue hard enough to taste blood and reaches out again. The fragment of his chakra lights up, directly above his head.

Orochimaru grabs for it and squeezes with all his might. The whistle cuts off into a sharp scream. He sends Kusanagi flying straight up and feels the fragment of chakra skittering along the ceiling like a spider, making a beeline for the nearest intact pillar to the catwalk. 

Orochimaru lets Kusanagi give chase until she’s hit the top of the pillar. The second she does he sends all his snakes surging off the catwalk. They swarm the pillar, slithering up it and wrapping around something solid. Sakura flickers back into view, petals nearly covering what scraps of skin she’s showing, thrashing frantically against the snakes as they wind around her. They squeeze down on her arms, legs, stomach and throat.

The snakes will smother Sakura alive. She is going to die down here, alone, in pain, and screaming.

Orochimaru swallows the sour taste at the back of his tongue; “This is no less than you deserve.”

He's not sure who he's talking to anymore.

* * *

The moon is a good half hour from being in the center of the sky, but it lights up the river well enough as Naruto and Sasuke break through the tree line on the heels of their teacher. Kakashi sprints seamlessly from land to water, only pausing to pivot around when he’s halfway across the river.

Naruto can see Sasuke grin from the corner of his eye and mutter, "Good, now I won’t cause a forest fire."

Sasuke only has to run through _Horse_ and _Tiger_ before taking a deep breath in and spitting out a gigantic fireball. Naruto shields the bottom of his face from the heat and aftershock of chakra, squinting to get a look at Kakashi past the flames. Kakashi isn’t even making an effort to move out of the way. His hands are flashing through hand signs too fast for Naruto to track before slapping flat on the surface of the river.

"Lesson Number Three– Ninjutsu! _Water Style: Water Dragon Jutsu!_ "

The water glows beneath Kakashi’s hands and surges up in the shape of a roaring dragon, jetting forward to swallow the great fireball before it can reach Kakashi. Steam bursts from the dragon’s mouth like smoke, cutting off visibility, but the sound of rushing water is all Naruto needs to know that dragon is about to crash down on them like a tsunami. If it hits them it’s gonna knock them on their asses _and_ leave Sasuke soaked. A soaked Sasuke is a Sasuke that’ll electrocute himself if he tries to use any Lightning Style.

Naruto speeds through hand signs, kneading chakra around his heart, and throws his hands out in front of himself. Out from his palms comes a powerful gust of hot wind. The steam disperses in time for Naruto to see the wind hit the water dragon head on, forcing it up and over their heads. Kakashi forms half a seal and the water immediately loses it’s shape, turning from a dragon into a formless deluge. The water sprays out and down. Naruto chokes on a swear and shifts the wind as quickly as he can to curve up and around. The wind forces the water out in a wide circle, only a fine drizzle falling onto the two of them.

Sasuke’s eyes light up with the Sharingan as he looks between Naruto and their misted surroundings; "Can you use Wind Style to launch things?"

Naruto shrugs a shoulder; "It’s pretty much the only thing I _can_ do with it half the time."

Bolts of electricity come sparking down Sasuke’s arm, collecting in his palm; "What about people?"

Naruto grins, wide and ferocious; "Say no more!"

Naruto grabs Sasuke by the collar and the back of his shirt, pulling a yelp out of him as he swings him around in big circles. He kneads Wind chakra and pours it into his arms, releasing it in a jetstream when he throws Sasuke out over the river and sending him rocketing at Kakashi. Sasuke finds his bearings in midair and his Chidori crackles to life, lighting up the night sky as he divebombs toward Kakashi. For half a second, Naruto is _sure_ they’ve got him.

" _Earth Style! Bones of the Earth!_ "

Six pillars of stone burst up and out of the river. One rises up beneath Kakashi, sending him up twenty feet above the water and out of Sasuke’s reach. Another comes up right in front of Sasuke. Sasuke’s arm punches through the stone, down to his forearm, the chidori fizzling out. As Sasuke tries to wrench his arm free Naruto chews on his lower lip, frantically trying to remember what Jiraiya taught him about which chakra natures are good against which. Water beats fire, he knows that, but what beats Earth–?

Naruto’s eyes go wide and he’s immediately crossing his fingers to summon five more clones. The clones all form identical hand signs, take deep breaths, and blow out powerful gusts of air to create a wall of pure force. The wind hits the pillars and the pillars bend, then break. Kakashi is blown off his pillar, but catches himself midair and rides the wind like a gliding bird down to the water’s surface. Sasuke was much less prepared. He’s buffeted by the wind and knocked down to the water’s surface, barely giving him time to messily coat his body in chakra and land _on_ the river instead of _in_ it.

He grits his teeth and shouts over the sound of the raging gale, "Fucking _warn me next time!_ "

"Sorry!" Naruto calls as he leaps up and lets the wind carry him out over the river. He was _supposed_ to ride it until he landed right on top of Kakashi, but Kakashi forces himself up into a crouch, speeds through handsigns, and in an instant the wind is eaten alive by a gigantic wall of fire. Naruto’s clones cut off the air supply and Naruto drops like a stone, but it’s too little too late. What would’ve been a sizable flame on it’s own has become a raging inferno thanks to all the oxygen Naruto fed it, and it’s racing toward him faster than Naruto can form hand signs.

Naruto cuts the flow of chakra to his feet and drops beneath the surface of the river. He swims as low as he can before turning to look up. For a moment, the entire surface glows a bright orange as the fire rages. Then the water to Naruto’s left shifts and swirls up toward the surface and, with a distant _hiss,_ the fire goes out. Naruto can feel the turbulence of the water being continuously pulled up toward a shadow on the surface– probably Sasuke. He has Kakashi distracted– This is the only shot Naruto’s going to get. He disperses all but one of his clones, the lucky survivor diving into the river and swimming to his side.

He holds out a hand and the clone starts shaping chakra into a tight, spinning orb in his palm. As the clone works on his Rasengan Naruto keeps an eye on the shadows above him. The water keeps churning as Sasuke keeps pulling it up, keeping Kakashi at a distance. The Rasengan is almost complete when Kakashi’s shadow disappears and a bright, crackling light bursts to life. It expands out across the entire surface of the river, dissolving down into it and not quite reaching Naruto, but getting uncomfortably close. He can’t hear much, but there’s a warbled sound that’s too close to Sasuke screaming for Naruto’s liking. His clone pulls back and fires off another gust of Wind Style, sending Naruto rocketing up and out of the river.

Naruto breaches the surface, Rasengan whirling, a few feet away from Kakashi. Sasuke is on hands and knees a few yards away, panting heavily, with skin that is either smoking or steaming. Naruto grits his teeth in a snarl and sprints straight for Kakashi, who whirls around to face him, eyes wide.

"Take this! Rasenga–!"

Naruto didn’t even see Kakashi make the hand signs. He throws out a hand and fires a whirling gyre of wind, hitting Naruto square in the chest and knocking him up and away. Naruto’s concentration on the Rasengan drops and the threads of whirling chakra unravel like a ball of yarn falling down the stairs. Kakashi whips his arm up and the wind changes direction, dragging Naruto in an arc through the air over his head. Once Naruto hits the apex of his arc Kakashi slices his arm through the air and the wind dunks Naruto down onto the surface of the river, sending Naruto bouncing and rolling directly into Sasuke.

Before Naruto can even think about getting back up Sasuke’s gloved hand has fisted itself in his collar and he’s being dragged toward the riverbank.

Naruto claws at his hand and shouts, "Hey, let go, we–!"

"We’re making a tactical retreat," Sasuke shouts, "Come on, on your feet, before he’s done!"

Naruto’s eyes dart back to Kakashi, whose hands are a blur of signs as chakra seeps out of his feet and into the river. The _whole_ river. Naruto’s eyes go wide and he manages to pull himself up as Sasuke drags him, breaking into a sprint once he’s all the way up. Naruto and Sasuke make it to the riverbank just in time for Kakashi to pull the whole river up into a tidal wave and send it racing toward them. Thanks to their tactical retreat the worst of it doesn’t land on them, but the very edge of the wave crashing down behind them is enough to knock the two off balance and send them sprawling end over end past the tree line, back into the woods.

The two thoroughly soaked and thoroughly battered boys take a moment to cough and curse through the pain in the dirt. Sasuke is the first to get up, pulling himself to his knees and taking deep breaths. Naruto watches as, in rhythm with his breathing, Sasuke coats his very raw and slightly charred skin with a thin layer of pale cyan chakra. The angry red burns slowly start to shift back to Sasuke’s natural pallor.

Naruto props himself up on one hand and grouses, "Okay, what’s the move _now?_ We _tactically retreated_ but we still haven’t gotten the–"

Sasuke snaps through grit teeth, "Shut up, just– _Shut up._ "

Naruto scowls. There, at least, is something familiar.

* * *

The second the snakes swerve away from him and Jūgo, Suigetsu leaps into action by literally leaping off the catwalk. He shifts from solid to liquid a second before he hits the surface, the force dispersing along with his body across the water’s surface. First order of business is pulling water up into his chest, using it to fill in and rebuild everything Orochimaru pierced with Kusanagi. He lets his chakra spread out through the water, expanding his senses in proportion to the scale of the reservoir. He catches sight of the snakes swarming the pillar, surging up it and dragging Sakura down.

The water lights up with his chakra as he takes hold of the reservoir. He fires a massive jet of highly pressurized water at the pillar, cutting cleanly through the mass of snakes as well as the stone beneath. The snakes lose their grip on Sakura and she goes plummeting toward the water’s surface. 

Suigetsu molds the water around his chakra, drawing it up and into a massive, blurry version of his own body. He catches Sakura with one gigantic, wet hand. She sinks into his palm and has to doggy paddle to keep her head above water. Suigetsu balls his other hand into a fist the size of a boulder and slams it down on the catwalk, missing Orochimaru and Jūgo by an inch and punching straight through the catwalk. Orochimaru backpedals away from the gap and Jūgo leaps easily over it, charging after Orochimaru. Suigetsu is about to try asking Sakura what the move is when, out of the corner of his eye, he catches her taking a deep breath and dropping down into his hand.

The feeling of someone swimming _through_ his arm, across his chest, and down his other arm is going to haunt Suigetsu's dreams for at least a week. Sakura comes bursting out of the back of his fist, kicks off the wall, and lands a yard away from Orochimaru. She runs through _Horse_ and _Tiger_ and rolls to press her palms to the stone of the catwalk, lime green chakra flowing into the stone catwalk below Orochimaru's feet. It breaks apart into jagged chunks beneath him, but Orochimaru is still faster than her.

Chakra surges down into his feet and he sprints across the breaking ground, leaping onto one of the larger pipes. Suigetsu reaches out and grabs the pipe as easily as he'd grab the hilt of a sword. He tears it out of the wall, a chunk of the wall coming with it. Orochimaru isn't thrown by the sudden movement, running along the pipe and leaping onto the water pump it _had_ been attached to.

Orochimaru drops to one knee atop the water pump and points a finger like a pistol at Suigetsu. A bright, impossibly tiny pinprick of chakra gathers on the tip of his finger. He fires off the bead of chakra at Suigetsu’s chest, hitting the target Suigetsu so _graciously_ made bigger for him. Suigetsu doesn’t even have time to regret it. The second the bead of chakra hits it bursts outward into a massive ball of lightning, the electricity coursing through Suigetsu’s body. 

He can’t even hear himself scream. He’s being burned alive from the inside out, reservoir water sloughing off him like fat off the bone. The world goes white. All he can feel is the pain and the rush of wind as his body falls with the rest of the water. Something hits him from the side and his momentum suddenly changes direction, sideways rather than forward. The distant sounds of battle are overwhelmed by the sound of rapid wingbeats, right in his ear. The world starts to fade back in, and Suigetsu is treated to the blurry image of Sakura, up close and fully transformed. He takes a bleary look around to find himself _flying_ away from Orochimaru, slaloming around the columns in the reservoir. Sakura must be _carrying_ him.

He shuts his eyes and mutters, "I'm gonna get airsick and throw up all over you, I hope you know that."

"Throw up on me later," Sakura snarls, twirling around in midair to look back toward Orochimaru and Jūgo, "I need you back in the game _now_."

Suigetsu's eyes are drawn over to the catwalk by a loud _woosh_. Jūgo is knocked back by a massive gust of wind, rolling to a stop at the edge of one of the breaks in the catwalk. He leaps to his feet and points his stump at Orochimaru, the end shifting into one of his boosters and firing a blast of compressed air at Orochimaru. Orochimaru's hands dart through signs and he conjures another pinprick of chakra, this time right in front of his chest. The compressed air hits the bead of chakra and it expands into a massive fireball. Orochimaru sends it flying back at Jūgo, hitting him in the chest and knocking him off the edge of the catwalk. Jūgo's reflexes are quick, his arm shifting into a long, almost spine-like appendage that stretches for the catwalk and buries it's pointed tip in the stone. He retracts it, quickly pulling himself back, and capitalizes on his momentum by pointing the booster behind himself and firing down at the water. The force of the blast sends him rocketing at Orochimaru, and Jūgo whips his other appendage toward his throat.

Orochimaru flies through _Tiger Ox Dog Rabbit Snake,_ takes a deep breath in, and breathes out a whirlwind powerful enough to send Jūgo flying end over end across the room. He slams back-first into the opposite wall, the stone cracking with the impact. His head smacks against the stone and his body goes limp, his limbs shifting back to normal and the dark patches of his skin receding. Sakura's breath hitches on a gasp. Suigetsu quickly looks between her and Jūgo before pushing off her chest and rolling out of her arms, falling down toward the water.

He only has a second to hear Sakura shout, "What the _fuck_ are you–?!" and call back his own, "Don't worry about me get hi–!" before he hits the water.

He liquefies and spins his chakra down through the water, then pulls it all back up into a massive waterspout. He whirls across the surface of the reservoir, breaking clean through the pillars in his way. The moment he comes close to the catwalk he releases his grip, the water losing it's shape and collapsing directly on top of Orochimaru. The force knocks the old snake off the water pump and back down to what remains of the catwalk. Suigetsu is thrown from the waterspout directly at Orochimaru.

The katana and wakizashi are long gone, lost to the depths of the reservoir, but when Suigetsu can't find a sword he can always make one. He shifts his right arm into a watery blade and plunges down toward Orochimaru, stabbing for his throat. Orochimaru dodges a second too soon for Suigetsu to hit his target but too late for him to miss entirely. He knocks Orochimaru to the ground, the water blade burying itself in the stone next to his head. He doesn't have time to pull it out and try again. Orochimaru's hand shoots up and buries itself in Suigetsu's liquid arm. Lightning flares to life around Orochimaru's hand and burns through Suigetsu's body, forcing another cry out of him and rattling his body like he's stuck in a pachinko machine.

Orochimaru pushes against Suigetsu, forcing him back and bringing himself up. He keeps his lightning-coated hand buried deep in his arm, grin growing all the wider as Suigetsu starts to lose his solid form and shift into something almost gelatinous. The second before Suigetsu's vision can white out for a second time, there's another roar and a blast of compressed air hits Orochimaru in the side. He goes whirling off of Suigetsu, bouncing and rolling along the catwalk and skidding to a halt near the edge. Suigetsu pulls himself up to one knee, just in time for Jūgo to step in between him and Orochimaru.

Jūgo gnashes his teeth and snarls, "Nobody kills the wet one but me!"

Suigetsu pulls more of himself together, chuckling weakly through his teeth, "At least you didn't call me the _moist_ one."

Orochimaru leaps to his feet just in time for Sakura to come flying down from the ceiling. He meets her in the air with a kunai. The image of Sakura immediately bursts into petals and another comes falling down on the other side to replace her. Another kunai, another burst of petals, and in an instant the chamber is _full_ of Sakuras. Each one Orochimaru hits bursts into petals, dissolves into water, explodes in a puff of white smoke, or melts into mud. There are almost more petals in the air than oxygen molecules at this rate. Orochimaru snarls something under his breath and, with a flick of his wrist, Kusanagi comes flying down from the ceiling to cover his back, slicing through the clones and Petal Illusions harrying him from behind.

Deep within the cloud of petals, within the crowd of identical Sakuras, Suigetsu picks out _one_ that isn't just running at Orochimaru like it has a death wish. She's running through hand signs, and it's a fucking long sequence for being in the middle of the fight. What even is she– _Ram Tiger Snake Dog Rat Ox Horse Rabbit Tiger Boar Snake_ what jutsu even is–

A Practice Brick wall bursts up from the ground directly in front of Orochimaru and smacks right into his chin. You could hear the sound of his teeth clacking together all the way up on the surface. His eyes go out of focus and he staggers to one side. Kusanagi immediately falls out of the air, landing with a clatter on the stone ground. Oh fuck. Oh _fuck_. Oh _fuck now's his chance._

Suigetsu leaps into a sprint. His vision tunnels, the world narrowing down to a single point: Kusanagi. He drops into a roll a foot away from it, grabbing it off the ground mid-roll and coming back up into a drifting run. Orochimaru's back is turned. He's focused on Sakura. Now. Now now now _now._ Suigetsu shoves all the chakra he has left down into his legs and fires himself like an arrow from a bow at Orochimaru. He thrusts Kusanagi out and up, piercing through Orochimaru's chest from behind and not stopping until the hilt hits his back.

Orochimaru goes still. His body sags, the strength leaving his legs. Kusanagi through his chest is the only thing keeping him upright. Suigetsu can't believe it's over. He can't. He _won't_.

And he's right not to. Orochimaru's torso bulges and ripples until the flesh splits. The body explodes, forcing Suigetsu to cover his eyes to keep the blood out of them. There's a massive, meaty _thump_ and a _hiss_ that overpowers Sakura and Jūgo's horrified gasps. Suigetsu brings his arm down and his stomach lurches.

The… _thing_ looming over them now… It has to be Orochimaru, but it’s– It’s body is a writhing mass of white snakes, hundreds of scales rasping against each other to create a sound like television static. It’s easily twice the size of Orochimaru, how the Hell that thing was hiding inside his body is a question Suigetsu doesn’t want answered. It’s head _almost_ looks human, with shaggy hair, a pointed chin, scales for skin and several rows of sharp teeth.

It can’t be Orochimaru. It _can’t._ But it’s eyes are bright, burning gold, and glaring down at the three of them with nothing but contempt. Suigetsu sees those eyes in his nightmares. There’s no one else it _can_ be.

He shifts a foot back towards the reservoir; “Did you get the signal yet?”

Sakura slowly shakes her head; “I… I didn’t…”

Suigetsu’s pulse jumps, and his voice comes out in a yelp; “So? What’s the plan?!”

Sakura stares at the creature for a heartbeat longer before she cries out, “ _SCATTER!_ ”

She doesn’t need to tell him twice. Suigetsu steps backward off the catwalk and is liquid before he hits the reservoir’s surface. He races through the water, into one of the intact pipes, and is gone.

* * *

The moon is at it's zenith, and Gaara has been flipping through the same three pages of this fifty page report for the past ten minutes.

His desk is stacked high with documents, many more urgent and more deserving of his attention, but something about Yura's report on village security just wouldn't let him put it down. All his proposals in the council chambers and the measures Gaara had seen in practice had seemed both reasonable and prudent. The nagging sense of unease had seemed to have no origin. If he were anyone else, if these measures were being reported by anyone else, Gaara would have chalked it up to nerves. After all, these security measures are only necessary because the Akatsuki are targeting _him. Specifically._ That would be enough to make anyone paranoid.

But Gaara is still the Sand Village's captive monster. Yura is still a man who speaks his name to his face and spits it behind his back. Of course his security measures would _seem_ reasonable and prudent and entirely in the Kazekage's best interest, but the devil would be in the details.

And after reading and rereading this security report in varying amounts of detail on and off throughout the day, Gaara is almost certain he's found that devil.

Because for all Yura has fortified the village walls, for all he's called back skilled jōnin, for all he's kept genin on domestic D and C ranks to consolidate manpower, there is one hole. No one is watching the sky.

There are a few sentries within the village's walls keeping an eye out, and they do have ballistae on the walls and the taller buildings, but they aren't nearly enough. Not for the Land of Wind. Not for a country of wide open desert and wider skies. Their Nightjar Corps, the Fan Corps, and the Falconer Corps are scattered, the bulk of their manpower on assignments outside the village. Yura in his report chalks this up to assignments made before they learned of the Akatsuki.

Unlikely at best, untrue at worst.

Incredibly convenient, regardless– Temari is out of the village. As their puppetteers and saboteurs belong to Kankuro, the airborne divisions are Temari's children. When she's here, she has the final say over where they go and what they do. She would never leave the sky unprotected, especially not the sky above the village. She better than anyone would know how easy it could be to invade the village from above.

A darting white spot in the corner of his vision draws Gaara's eye to the window.

Flying over the rooftops of the Sand Village, stark white in the light of the full moon, is a bird. An absolutely massive bird. The only birds he's seen that match it are Falconer Corps summons, but not one of those birds is as white as the driven snow, white enough to glow under the light of the moon. It flies strangely, its movements too smooth, too perfect. Like the platonic ideal of a bird.

There are no birds like that one in this desert.

Gaara stands from his desk and immediately doffs his Kazekage robes to reveal the combat fatigues beneath. He straps his gourd to his back and makes for the roof to confront the intruder. Once he's done, Yura has some explaining to do.


	4. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Naruto’s face splits into a mischievous grin; "I’ve got a plan."
> 
> Sasuke arches a brow, but is down on his haunches, whispering, "Alright, let’s hear it," in an instant.
> 
> Naruto tells him the plan.
> 
> Sasuke stares at him for a long moment, then chuckles through his teeth, "You really _are_ the Number One, Unpredictable, Knucklehead Ninja. I’m _in._ "

**III.** It’s midnight, and Sasuke has been pacing in circles for at least two minutes.

Naruto, from his seat on the ground with his back leaning against a tree, grouses, "You’re gonna kill all that grass, you know."

Sasuke’s eyes slam shut and sparks dance across his fingers as he snaps, "For the _love of_ – Naruto, we need a _strategy._ If you’re not gonna say anything helpful, just _be quiet._ "

Naruto rolls his eyes; "Well good luck, because _I’ve_ used up all my good ideas… I mean, besides maybe threatening to spoil the Icha Icha book I gave him. That might make him close his eyes and cover his ears or something."

Sasuke pinches the bridge of his nose; "I don’t think there are enough hours in the day for me to explain how stupid an idea that is."

" _Yeah,_ dude, that was the _joke,_ " Naruto shoots back, "You _really_ think I’m _that dumb?_ "

Sasuke’s mouth quickly opens and shuts. They both know what he was going to say. Naruto just narrows his eyes in a glare and Sasuke looks away. The night is quiet and still, the air between them stifling.

Sasuke runs a hand through his hair with an exasperated breath through his nose; "This is just… _frustrating._ I know if we were going up against him in a straight fight we could probably take him out, but…"

Naruto lets his head drop back against the trunk and groans, " _No,_ we have to get those _stupid bells._ "

He glares at what he can see of the night sky through the trees. At least this isn’t going _as_ bad as their first attempt at the test. All he’d had was confidence, with next to no skill to back it up. Sasuke had skill and confidence but no practical experience in battle. And Sakura… Well, Sakura had contributed about as much as she’s contributing right now. At least now they don’t have to worry about who’s going to be sent back to the academy because they couldn’t get their hands on a bell.

Naruto’s brow slowly furrows, and he wonders aloud, "Wait a minute, _why_ do we have to get those stupid bells?"

Sasuke rolls his eyes; "It’s a lesson in teamwork–"

Naruto cuts him off; "Well yeah, we learned that the hard way, but think about it. Back when we took this test the first time Kakashi was trying to hammer home that you have to put your teammates first, right? Like that’s why there were two bells but three of us, and all that drama about you guys not being allowed to feed me so you’d be forced to show if you cared more about the rules than your teammates. The test is made to test teams of three. But there’s only two of us, and it’s basically the same."

Sasuke perks up, a hand going to his chin; "It’s actually _easier._ Two bells, two of us. We were allowed to _eat_ before the test, and there’s no soft time limit halfway through where anyone without a bell is forced to miss lunch. Why wouldn’t they tweak the test to suit two people or put additional handicaps on us? Like this, it might as well _just_ be a combat test with an extra hurdle."

Naruto frowns hard at the dirt as he turns the question over in his head. That’s true on paper, but if it’s _really_ as easy as Sasuke’s saying, they should’ve gotten those bells hours ago. At their best, he and Sasuke used to have an unspoken rhythm when they fought together. Naruto only needed a glance at where Sasuke was on the battlefield to know where to go and what to do. And there have been moments during this test where everything clicks into place and it’s like their last fight together was yesterday instead of two years ago.

But the rest of the time, it’s like they’re trying to dance to two different songs. Worse still, Naruto’s dancing to a song Sasuke forgot, and Sasuke’s performing an elaborate routine he practiced with another partner. And neither of them are all that great at communicating _off_ the battlefield, so they’re even worse on it. How many times have they silently agreed _not_ to talk about something in the last twenty four hours? It feels like at least fifty. Why does their _worst_ shared habit have to be the thing that’s survived two years of separation and _countless_ instances of _that exact thing_ blowing up in their faces? He thought things would get better after that fight when they were trying to convince Tsunade to come back to the village, but nearly killing each other apparently isn’t enough–

Naruto’s eyes go wide. _That’s_ what they’re testing for! It has to be! Kakashi, Tsunade, Shizune, Jiraiya, they _all_ know this is what happens when he and Sasuke are pushed to their limit! But… they could still be pushing _harder._ It would be even _easier_ for him and Sasuke to lose focus on Kakashi and start fighting each other if they were hungry and fighting under harsher conditions. Jiraiya never went easy on him during these past two years. Tsunade never goes easy on _anyone._

But Tsunade said the test was of _Kakashi’s_ design. Kakashi, whose soft spot for his students has always been a bigger blind spot than the eye he keeps covered. Who’s been _living_ with his favorite pupil for two years. Who signed the three of them up for a test even Naruto can admit, in hindsight, they probably should’ve waited another six months for because he was _sure_ they were ready for it.

He _wants_ them to pass. He’s setting them up for success, but not just _handing_ it to them. It’s brilliant.

And it’s _exploitable._

Naruto’s face splits into a mischievous grin; "I’ve got a plan."

Sasuke arches a brow, but is down on his haunches, whispering, "Alright, let’s hear it," in an instant.

Naruto tells him the plan.

Sasuke stares at him for a long moment, then chuckles through his teeth, "You really _are_ the Number One, Unpredictable, Knucklehead Ninja. I’m _in._ "

* * *

Sakura has to imagine this is what Orochimaru’s lab rats in his horrifying mazes feel like as she flies around a corner, the sound of ivory snakes slithering over and around each other dogging her trail. She compulsively drops Petal Illusions in her wake, the illusions zipping along her previous course while she wheels down a hallway or cuts through a room. She’s starting to lose track of what floor she’s on, what direction she’s going, if the snakes are even still _after_ her. A bad sign. A _really bad_ sign. A sign she’s been in this cursed form too long. She has to end this and end it fast, but how does she fight that _thing?!_ She’d suspected that something more monstrous lurked beneath Orochimaru’s skin, but nothing like this, nothing on this scale. Maybe the plan can still work, but she still doesn’t know–

The combination of a pipe bursting above her head and stomping footsteps from around the next bend in the hall make Sakura move on instinct. She yelps out a foul word and has senbon between her fingers in the blink of an eye, throwing them twice as fast. Two fly harmlessly through water and the other two hit metallic flesh formed into an axe-like blade.

" _Sea_ and _goddamn fucking sky,_ Sakura," Suigetsu snarls, body pulling together from the jet of water still spraying from the pipe, "Watch where you’re pointing those things!"

Sakura stares ahead, slowing her wingbeats and dropping back to her feet. It certainly _looks_ like Suigetsu and Jūgo are standing in front of her, Kusanagi still firmly in Suigetsu’s grip and Jūgo slowly getting drenched thanks to Suigetsu’s dramatic entrance. But she knows better than anyone how treacherous images can be.

She draws two more senbon from her obi and points them at the boys, voice shaking as she snaps, "The password. Now. Every word of it."

Suigetsu and Jūgo slowly exchange glances before both look up and away, mumbling such elegant recitations as "Uh… fuckin’… We thrive in… somethin’…" and "There’s… the word 'gate' in there–"

Suigetsu slaps a hand to his forehead as he groans, "Of _course_ I don’t fuckin’ remember it!"

Jūgo grits his teeth tight before roaring, " _Enough!_ We should be _killing Orochimaru!_ Cutting up every last one of those snakes until this whole base is painted _scarlet!_ "

Jūgo swings the axe replacing his severed hand at Sakura and Suigetsu effortlessly brings Kusanagi up to parry, knocking it away. The axe blade buries itself in the wall a foot above her head. Sakura can’t help a smirk. Just as she thought, there’s no way either of them would have the patience for that password. She’ll need to thank Sasuke one day for inadvertently teaching her that trick during the Second Exam.

"Okay," she breathes, stowing her senbon, "You’re definitely the real thing. Now, it’s obvious that we’re… not in a great spot right now."

"Fuck yeah we’re not," Suigetsu cuts in, "Did you even _know_ that he did… _that_ to himself?! What the fuck did he even– _How the Hell do you replace your whole body with snakes?!_ "

Sakura shakes her head; "No idea, but we have to work with what we’re given."

"Screw that, we need to get out of here," Suigetsu fires back, "We don’t stand a chance against that thing, we need to regroup and try again later."

Jūgo saves Sakura the trouble of voicing her own thoughts; " _No!_ We gotta kill him, _gotta kill him now!_ I’m not gonna rest until I’ve torn him to pieces!"

Sakura takes a breath, then adds, "Speaking from practicality, if we ran, that just gives Orochimaru time to rally his forces and send them after us. And our plan _can_ still work, but that’s going to depend on Zhàdàn and Kabuto."

"Speaking from _experience,_ relying on Kabuto’s always a fucking trap," Suigetsu spits, "And relying on _Zhàdàn_ was your biggest mistake back in the Earth Country mountains! Face it, Sakura, we gotta fall back on Plans B through Literally Anything Else, because Plan A’s fucked six ways from Sunday!"

Sakura’s voice comes out in a growl; " _Trust me,_ you _don't_ want to be a part of Plan B–"

A puff of white smoke bursts into being above Sakura’s head. A snake, a delicate little garter with pale green stripes breaking up her black body, falls from the cloud. Sakura catches her out of the air as Suigetsu brandishes Kusanagi and Jūgo makes ready to swing.

The little snake winds tight around Sakura’s wrist and whispers, "M-mistress Sakura, I– I am– Master Kabuto has sent me here with a message. He says, 'The coop is empty and the traps are set for the fox'."

Sakura’s mouth goes dry, and she rasps with a sandpaper tongue, "I… I see. Thank you, Nino. You’re free to return to Ryūchi Cave."

She quickly does, disappearing as abruptly as she appeared. Sakura’s hand slowly curls into a tight fist.

She looks Suigetsu and Jūgo in the eye and orders, "Go. Get topside as fast as you can."

Suigetsu purses his lips, running a hand through damp hair; "You’re really staying down here, huh?"

Sakura shrugs a shoulder; "Someone has to light the fuses."

Jūgo points a clawed finger at her throat and snarls, "If you don’t make it out of here, I’m going to dig you up and tear your corpse to shreds."

Sakura’s laugh is weak and breathless; "I would expect nothing less."

The two boys turn and start sprinting away, both sparing her a lingering glance over their shoulders before they disappear from sight. The sight of them looking back at her in guarded, cautious concern makes something in her gut twist. She closes her eyes and shoves a hard breath out through her nose. She lets her wings pick her up off the ground and shoots off down the corridor.

It’s time to get back to work.

* * *

Kakashi watches from a safe distance as Sasuke and Naruto chase after a clone, keeping pace with them as quietly as he can. A shinobi has to carefully weigh speed versus stealth, and right now the boys are forcing him to err on the side of speed. Even after hours of fierce battle they’re still putting him through his paces. That, at least, is a good sign. Now, if _only_ they could actually get their hands on a bell.

Naruto and Sasuke force the clone out into the open, cornering it between the three posts and the memorial stone. The two of them leap into action, engaging the clone in another tense taijutsu bout. Kakashi’s eyes narrow, focusing on Sasuke and Naruto. They’re starting to get sloppy. Sasuke’s taking as many hits as he lands, and what few signs there are that Naruto’s not just acting on feral instinct are ebbing away in favor of more cheap shots and wild swings. Worse than that, their performance back at the river seemed to be a preview of coming attractions, because now they’re tripping over each other’s feet and getting in each other’s way instead of seamlessly fighting in sync.

Kakashi bites the inside of his cheek. _Damn it._ A long night of fighting can grind anyone down, he supposes, but this is… _concerning_.

A lucky palm thrust from Sasuke disperses the clone, prompting Naruto to throw his head back and groan, "Come _on!_ We wasted all this time on a _clone?!_ What good is that Sharingan if you can’t tell a clone from the real thing?!"

Sasuke shoots a piercing glare over his shoulder at Naruto; "I’m not going to explain how this works for the _hundredth time._ Get your head out of your ass and back in the game."

"Oh, _you’re_ telling _me_ to get _my head_ out of _my ass,_ that’s fuckin’ _rich,_ " Naruto scoffs, "You haven’t changed a bit, you know that?"

Sasuke rolls his eyes, adjusting his gloves; "Pot, meet kettle. I don’t know why I expected you to do any growing up when you spent the last two years with a manchild and a bunch of frogs."

Kakashi drags a hand down his face, stifling a sigh. This was coming sooner or later, he supposes. Nothing for it but to wait and see if they’ve matured enough to solve this themselves.

Naruto takes Sasuke by the shoulder and forcefully turns him around, getting up in his face and growling, "Hey! Do _not_ talk shit about Jiraiya!"

Sasuke doesn’t even flinch, just sneering, "Oh, so you’re allowed to talk merciless shit about both of my teachers, but I can’t speak the _truth_ about yours. I see how it is."

Naruto bares his teeth in a snarl; "It doesn’t matter how much training I do, does it?! You _still_ think you’re better than me, you stuck up _jackass!_ "

Sasuke lifts his chin, _literally_ looking down his nose at Naruto; "I _know_ I’m _still_ better than you. Those two years away were a waste of your time. You were dead last before you left, you’re dead last now."

Naruto’s grip tightens on Sasuke’s shoulder, his claws digging into his skin; "Call me dead last one more time. Come on. I fucking _dare you_."

Kakashi squeezes his eyes shut and mutters, "Sasuke, _don’t_ –"

He opens his eyes to see Sasuke lean in and spit, "Dead. Fucking. Last."

God _damn it_.

" _THAT’S IT–!_ "

Naruto rears back and slashes for Sasuke’s eyes. Sasuke throws a punch at Naruto’s throat. Neither connect. Kakashi bursts out of the trees and is between them in the blink of an eye, effortlessly catching Naruto’s wrist and Sasuke’s fist.

"That is _enough_ ," Kakashi snaps, "You’ve shown me all I need to see. I’m disappointed in _both_ of you, but I’m _especially_ disappointed in _you,_ Sasuke. I thought we were _past this–_ "

Whatever he was about to say next dies in his throat when he notices the smirk spreading across Sasuke’s face. Kakashi’s eyes flicker over to Naruto and find an identical smirk. Both of their bodies start to _undulate,_ rippling and twisting and _bulging_ unnaturally. Kakashi doesn’t get a moment to brace himself before Naruto and Sasuke explode, their skin bursting like water balloons, but it isn’t water that comes bursting out of them.

It’s frogs.

And slugs.

Dozens and dozens of frogs and slugs, each the size of Kakashi’s fist.

Kakashi can’t help the undignified yelp that comes sprinting up and out of his mouth. The frogs come surging up his right arm and the slugs ooze up his left, both moving far quicker than natural and with absolutely too much purpose. Sticky, slimy, wriggling forms cover his eyes and ears. He can _feel_ the mucus oozing into his ears, spreading across his skin, seeping through his mask and getting into his _mouth._ The slug slime from the many tiny Katsuyu fragments tingles as it spreads across his skin, everywhere it touches quickly going numb.

It’s like being submerged in mud. Mud that’s _alive._

Before he can come up with a strategy to get the horrible slimy things _off,_ one of the slugs wriggles it’s way beneath the edge of his mask. Oh _God,_ it’s going for his _mouth._ Kakashi loses the last threads of his composure. With a high-pitched shriek, he collapses to the ground, everything going dark.

* * *

There’s no hiding from Orochimaru. Not now. Not anymore. This is _his_ domain. And in this form, with his body split into dozens of snakes, he chases down all of Sakura’s clever little clones and illusions at once. In this form, he can feel the vibrations of her wings as they bounce off the tunnel walls. He can smell her fear, and the chakra she’s using to cover it. Oh, if only he could savor this chase. If only he could play with his food a little longer before he had to swallow it whole. But Sakura is moving with purpose. He has to end this, and end it _now_.

He chases down her doppelgängers and shields, bursting and dispersing them all, forcing Sakura to move the way he wants her to. He chases her up from the third layer, down from the first, and out of all the little nooks and crannies in the second layer. He cuts off hallway after hallway, forcing her to make sharp turns, somersault through the air, dip and dive and twirl out of his reach. He’ll run her until her wings can’t keep her aloft anymore.

He cackles though his many mouths, "Fly away home, little flower, fly fly fly!"

He finally corners her, two pieces of his body chasing her toward one of the support pillars holding up the second layer’s ceiling before coming together again. And like any cornered rat, Sakura has no choice but to bite the cat. Sakura whirls around in midair, hands flashing through signs before she brings them up to her mouth and takes a deep breath. She spits out a storm of little flames, each no larger than the pad of a thumb. Orochimaru’s body parts around the flames, the beads of fire going straight through him and hitting the support pillar. Sakura zips through the air, flying in zigs and zags just out of his reach, faking left and flying right as he lashes out for her with his jaws.

A cluster of snakes break off from the whole, slithering up along the wall and launching off it to hit Sakura’s right flank. The impact kills her momentum, allowing Orochimaru’s body to surge up and absorb the piece back into the whole. His body constricts around her, squeezing down until Sakura’s gray skin starts to turn red. Her eyes keep darting up to the top of the support pillar as she struggles. Orochimaru follows her gaze. Hidden in the darkness, marked only by a spark moving rapidly towards it, is a satchel tied by cord to where the pillar meets the ceiling. A rope, a _quickly burning rope,_ is sticking out of the top of the satchel.

It’s a satchel charge, filled to bursting with black powder. She must have lit it with that fire jutsu she threw at him before. Something cold and sharp jolts through his heart.

He turns his glare back to Sakura and hisses, "Where are the others?!"

Sakura forces a grin and just replies, "Where do you _think?_ "

There’s a muffled _boom!_ The ground beneath them rocks and shakes. Orochimaru doesn’t have time to catch his balance when there’s another _boom,_ this one rocking the base hard enough to knock stalactites off the ceiling. The shock of the explosions breaks his grip on Sakura, letting her dart up toward the ceiling. She doesn’t even need hand signs for Hidden Mole Jutsu anymore, Earth chakra simply pulsing off her in a wave of green and the stone immediately yielding to her touch. She bores a hole straight _up,_ and before Orochimaru can follow the satchel charge explodes in a blast of fire and force. The pillar crumbles and the ceiling goes with it, caving in on top of him.

He’s too slow to disperse his snakes, two large chunks of stone landing directly on him before he can. One hits his skull, forcing an eye shut, and the other his back, breaking dozens of serpentine spines. He works through the pain, splitting the living components of his body and slithering up through the rubble. He kneads Earth chakra and covers himself in it, grinding the broken rock around him into fine sand. Even split up like this he doesn’t move as fast as he’d like, and the instant he makes it to the first layer of the hideout is the instant the ceiling comes crashing down with the force of yet another explosion.

Orochimaru avoids the worst of it this time around, quickly retreating back into the tunnel he’d carved for himself. Dozens of ceiling fragments come raining down into the tunnel, battering him like a thousand tiny fists. He grits his teeth and keeps digging, forcing himself ever upward. Even when it’s falling to pieces around him ( _everything he built everything he ever made it’s slipping through his fingers literally crumbling to dust_ ) Orochimaru knows his base better than anyone else. He knows he’s almost at the surface. He pulls his body together, using the full strength of this massive form to make the final push to the surface. He just needs to keep going, keep moving, he’s going to breach the surface in three, two, _one._

He breaks through the ground into bright moonlight.

"And _fire!_ "

Pain explodes across his left flank, fire and smoke filling his vision. All Orochimaru can smell is sulfur and blood. The rapid concussive blasts are forcing him to the right but he uses all his strength to turn his head toward the source of his pain.

Civilians. There’s a rabble of skinny and filthy civilians, each and every one of them firing mortars, rifles, cannons, and all manner of artillery weapons _directly_ at him. They’re in a tight formation of staggered rows, and at the back are the last of Sakura’s accomplices. Huǒ Zhàdàn, the powdermonger, has crawled out of his hole in No Man’s Land to play commander. Orochimaru can hear him shouting orders to the rabble, giving nonverbal signals with his one remaining arm. When the front line runs out of ammunition, he directs the line just behind them to move forward and keep up the pressure.

And in the very back, calm despite the storm raging around him, is Kabuto. He stands with one hand on his hip and the other giving silent commands to the newly freed prisoners. They rush on and off of a pair of sturdy wagons, rolling barrels of black powder to the peasants to reload their weapons. Orochimaru grits his rows and rows of teeth. He can handle the pain, he _needs_ to handle the pain for _just_ a little longer. Just long enough for this trump card to turn on them.

The more shots they land, the more of his blood comes bursting out, only to evaporate. Orochimaru’s eyes zero in on the center of the front line, where an older woman with a scar on her temple suddenly seizes up. Her jaw locks, her fingers close around her rifle, and in an instant she’s all but frozen. The two peasants on either side of her quickly follow suit, and the ranks around them start to shift and burble with shock at the hole in their bombardment.

Zhàdàn’s eyes go wide and he shouts to Kabuto, "What the Hell is he doing?!"

Kabuto’s brow furrows as he calls back, "His blood in this form vaporizes on contact with the air! Fall back, if you breathe it in you’ll be paralyzed!"

The civilians and prisoners follow his order, but they’re not soldiers. They weren’t trained in how to fight _and_ retreat at the same time. There’s an opening in their offensive line, one Orochimaru races straight for. He’s going to break their formation clean in half. Wherever Sakura is, the sacrifice of these _innocents_ she dragged into battle against him will _definitely_ ferret her out–

A feral roar sounds from behind one of the black powder carts. The cart jerks, jostles, and lifts off the ground. Orochimaru only catches a glimpse of Jūgo, holding the _whole cart_ up an arm transfigured to be twice as muscular and covered in vents, before he throws the whole thing directly at him. Kabuto reaches into his weapon pouch and flings a kunai with an explosive tag attached to it on the cart’s heels. The cartful of black powder barrels smashes into Orochimaru. The kunai hits the cart, the explosive tag going off and starting a chain reaction through the black powder barrels. The explosion is bright enough to blind. Orochimaru can’t rely on his discipline and training anymore, letting loose a howl that sounds over the explosion.

There’s a silver lining, if only for a moment. The force of the explosion sends wooden shrapnel flying all across the battlefield, digging into the flesh of the unarmored civilians and knocking them to the ground. Yet more of his blood vaporizes in the air, blowing on the force of the blast to paralyze all but the back line. The moment passes when Suigetsu comes sprinting through the battlefield, a scrap torn from his shirt hastily tied around the bottom of his face. He skids to a halt at the front line, making hand signs with one hand and brandishing Kusanagi with the other. The blade glows with foreign blue chakra. Suigetsu takes the hilt in both hands, and _swings._

What comes from the blade is a massive wave, following the trajectory of Suigetsu’s swing. The wave crashes into Orochimaru, knocking him back from the front line and stealing back all the distance he gained. Suigetsu raises Kusanagi’s blade straight up, the moonlight glinting off the steel. Sakura shoots up from behind the remaining cart, flying higher and higher until she’s yards above Orochimaru. She points a finger directly at his head and pulls back with her other arm, green chakra forming into a bow and an arrow with flower petals for fletchings.

She lets the arrow loose with a fierce cry of, " _Hama ya!_ "

Time seems to slow as Orochimaru watches the arrow fly for him. He sees Sakura’s gray skin, white hair, and delicate wings all recede. Her eyes roll back, and she immediately starts plummeting to the ground. As the arrow comes closer, within the blaze of chakra Orochimaru can see a sharp, dark branch with delicate pink flowers blooming at it’s end.

He lets his eyes slide shut an instant before the arrow pierces his mouth.

And everything goes dark.

* * *

Kakashi is brought back to the world by the sound of jingling bells.

He pries his eyes open. Naruto and Sasuke are standing over him, each with a bell in hand and a slimy creature perched on their shoulder. Both of them are wearing insufferable smirks, but he can’t say they don’t deserve to feel smug right now. He eases himself up into a sitting position, pulling his headband back down over his Sharingan and smiling wearily behind his mask.

"Alright," he sighs, "You got me. That was an impressively dirty trick."

"Which part," Sasuke wonders, "The frog and slug clones, or the fake fight?"

"Personally I’m proud of the clones," Naruto remarks, puffing out his chest, "Some of my best work yet, believe it!"

The toad on his shoulder lets out a loud croak, as if it agrees. The small Katsuyu on Sasuke’s shoulder seems to find the act of slowly crawling into his hair much more interesting than their conversation. Kakashi shivers as the cool breeze hits just a bit colder, what with all the toad and slug slime covering his skin and soaking into his clothes.

"The fake fight," Kakashi replies, running a hand through his slightly sticky hair, "You’re both far better actors than I gave you credit for. With a little more polish, you two could be _scary._ "

Naruto and Sasuke trade grins and bump fists. A dull, warm ache throbs through Kakashi’s chest. They really are growing up right before his eyes. Was it really only two ( _nearly three_ ) years ago that Naruto had been tied up to the very posts he’s standing in front of, with Sasuke offering him his lunch and making excuses for it? A part of him, not as tiny nor as distant as Kakashi pretends, can’t help but wonder if this could have been him and Obito.

"A strong showing," a familiar voice cuts in over the sound of crunching undergrowth, "But on the downside, I now owe Jiraiya a hundred ryo."

All eyes turn to the trees just behind the memorial stone. Tsunade makes her entrance first, Jiraiya a few paces behind, but both are quickly overtaken by Shizune. She sprints over to the boys with an excited squeal and throws her arms around them both. Tonton trots in circles around their feet, oinking merrily. Naruto’s eyes go impressively wide and his face impressively red. Sasuke endures Shizune’s affection with his usual light flush and subtle smile, bringing an arm up to pat her back.

Kakashi pushes up to his feet, shooting Tsunade an amused glance over his shoulder; "What were you betting on?"

Jiraiya cracks a smirk; "How long it’d take for them to pass. Tsunade thought it’d go down to the wire."

"Well, at least you bet on us _almost_ failing instead of just failing outright," Sasuke snorts, carefully extracting himself from Shizune’s embrace, "You said this test would determine our future status. What’s the verdict, Ma’am?"

Tsunade crosses her arms over her chest, lips quirking up in a smile; "I did say that, didn’t I? Well then, in light of your performance, Naruto, Sasuke, Kakashi, for the foreseeable future the three of you will be taking missions together– Not as students and teacher, but as a team of shinobi on equal footing. For clarity and because I’m uncreative, your designation will be Team Kakashi."

Tsunade shifts her eyes to Naruto, adding, "And for _you,_ Mister, the test isn’t over. Since Sasuke is an experienced chūnin and Kakashi a seasoned jōnin, you’ll be participating in missions of higher stakes and scale than you’re used to. Depending on how well you do on these missions, I _may_ be able to get a special dispensation to promote you to chūnin without having to take the exams."

Naruto’s eyes light up, but Tsunade cuts him off, jabbing a sharp fingernail in his face; "I’d have to go through the council for that, and they’re crusty old bastards always trying to find the _tiniest_ flaws in my proposals to argue over for hours. Your work better be _so exemplary_ they can’t tell me _shit._ Don’t disappoint me, Uzumaki."

Naruto blinks rapidly, but grins wide and folds his arms behind his head and crows, "No sweat! Just you watch, Grandma, I'm gonna blow you away– believe it!"

The conversation falls into casual small talk about what to do for dinner when ninety percent of the shops are closed, and Kakashi looks on wistfully. He knows he should be seeing himself out, after all he was just informed he has team registration paperwork to do, but he wants to savor this moment for just a little longer.

"I hope you’d be proud of them," Kakashi murmurs to all the people who aren’t here, but should be.

* * *

Sakura is brought back to the world by Jūgo softly jostling her and whispering her name. She curls closer to the heavy, solid warmth at her side. She can feel her hands shaking, and is just so, _so_ cold. But she has to get up. People are counting on her.

Opening her eyes feels like trying to pull a pair of magnets apart. When she finally gets them as open as they’re going to get, she takes blurry stock of her surroundings. She can see the edges of trees framing the night sky and the not-quite-full moon. She can see Jūgo, directly above her. From the angle, she has to imagine she’s being cradled in his arms. It takes her longer than she’d like to remember why that would be. He has to have caught her, right after she fell out of the sky. He’s reverted back to his normal state and his eyes, two parts concerned one part awed, keep flickering between her and something just past her.

The rest of her allies are nearby. Suigetsu and Zhàdàn are the closest, Suigetsu kneeling at Jūgo’s side and Zhàdàn standing over him. Suigetsu and Zhàdàn are close to her, close enough to touch, but their eyes are stuck on something just to her left. Suigetsu’s jaw is on the floor as he looks at… whatever it is, the moon caught in his big purple eyes. Zhàdàn is no less transfixed by whatever it is they’re looking at, but seems less awed, more disturbed. His one hand keeps rubbing at his beard, covering his mouth.

Kabuto is a few steps removed from the four of them. Sakura cranes her neck just a bit to see him injecting something from a syringe into one of the civilians, a young man. The young man being injected had been stock still, but suddenly takes a deep breath, and sags forward when Kabuto removes the needle. Sakura’s brow furrows for a moment, before Kabuto shouting something about a paralytic poison shuffles back into her mind. Kabuto picks himself up and starts to move deeper into the crowd, but pauses to look over his shoulder. Not at her, but at whatever is just to her left. His eyes are unreadable, as always.

A civilian woman with cropped brown hair and a scar on her temple comes over to the young man Kabuto just treated, squeezing his shoulder and whispering to him… Sakura struggles with her name for a few moments before the memory of her, concussed but alive in a tavern in a tiny rice-farming village, comes staggering back to her. Tang San-Ha, from Tadami. Sakura had saved her life, and she’d gone on to stoke more and more revolutionary fires across the Land of Sound. Sakura owes her more than just a thank you for all this manpower. What she’s going to have to pay her… She doesn’t know where she stands on it yet. But it’s too late to back out now. San-Ha also can’t help stealing glances over her shoulder at _whatever_ is on Sakura’s left, eyes widening every time she does.

Sakura licks her chapped lips, trying to puzzle out what they’re looking at. From what she remembers of the battle, the hideout… or what _was_ the hideout… should be that way. As should Orochimaru’s corpse. She can’t imagine that’s very pretty, and even trying to picture it makes a strange bolt of pain lance down the back of her throat. No, she can’t think about that. She has to think about what’s necessary, what’s right in front of her.

Sakura shifts in Jūgo’s arms, trying to sit up; "I’m awake, Jūgo. How is everyone? Is anyone injured?"

Jūgo frowns down at her; "Sakura…"

"We should get everyone packed up and ready to move. We can’t stay here long. We should also take stock of how much powder we used, see how much we owe Zhàdàn."

"Sakura _–_ "

"Right, shit, I should be– How are _you,_ Jūgo? Orochimaru took your arm off, is that still a problem with your kekkei genkai or–"

" _Sakura_ ," Jūgo’s voice comes out forceful, but not angry, and that’s enough to shut Sakura up as he points with the stump of his arm to her left, " _Look._ "

Sakura swallows hard. She takes a deep breath. She looks. And gasps.

Rooted on the edge of the crater that had been the hideout is a cherry tree in full bloom. Twisted up in it’s gnarled trunk is the body of Orochimaru, bark and branches growing over, around, and _through_ him. The branches of the canopy are all growing up and out from his open mouth, where she’d aimed her arrow. Sakura can only gawk as the petals come drifting down on the night breeze.

She whispers, " _I_ did that?"

Jūgo nods; "You did that."

Zhàdàn takes his hand off his mouth, staring down at Sakura; "That’s Wood Style, isn’t it? Only the First Hokage could do that. Just what the _Hell_ are you, Sakura?"

Sakura gapes at him for a moment, then slowly shakes her head; "I– No, I– Any ninja who can do Earth Style and Water Style and has good chakra control _can_ do this, i-it just takes more chakra and more… m-more of your _life force_ than any ninja can really afford to give up, I– That _shouldn’t_ have worked for me, I’ve _tried_ that before but I can only do it when I’m using the Curse Mark a-and– And even if it had worked, what if Jūgo didn’t _catch me,_ I would’ve… I’m not anything special, Zhàdàn. I just got… really, really lucky."

"Please… You’re the least… lucky… person I’ve ever met."

Sakura’s breath hitches and her head whips back to the tree, just in time to see Orochimaru’s body start to… _melt._ The flesh comes sloughing off the tree, white snakes falling to the ground as lumps of disfigured meat. The strange, almost puppetlike head _plops_ to the ground in pieces. The flesh starts to dissolve at the edges into chakra and natural energy. Jūgo’s hackles rise as it washes over them all. Sakura doesn’t have the chakra left to calm him, so she just squeezes his upper arm. The last chunk of flesh falls away from Orochimaru’s head, revealing…

Orochimaru.

He’s human again, or at least human _oid._ The branches of the canopy are sprouting from where his heart should be. Sakura finds herself relaxing by just a fraction. He’s still going to die. She didn’t mess up. But… He’s almost as she remembers, but he looks… thinner, his face gaunt with deep lines around his eyes and mouth. His hair is thinner too, no longer glossy black but dull and streaked with gray. He looks his age, instead of the nebulous void of 'not young, not old' she’d known for the past two and a half years.

Something about that makes Sakura’s heart clench tight.

His lips twist in a pale shadow of his regular grin; "No, you’re… not lucky… But you’re certainly not special, either… I suppose that makes you… _annoying_."

Sakura wants to laugh. It comes out choked and weird. It almost sounds like a sob. Her vision’s starting to blur again. She hopes she isn’t about to pass out, there are things she still needs to do tonight.

Orochimaru’s head lolls to the side, strands of graying hair drifting over his face like fog; "Oh… Don’t _do that…_ You won… try to _enjoy it_ …"

Sakura doesn’t know what he means until she rubs at her blurry eyes and her gloves come back wet.

Orochimaru gives her one last raspy chuckle, "Save your tears… Little Flower… We’ll meet again."

Sakura swallows hard, and finally manages to croak, "I hope we do."

Orochimaru’s chuckle tapers off into a long wheeze. His body goes still. Sakura looks up at the blossoms. The branches are quickly going bare, far quicker than even the frailest, most transient of cherry trees. Sakura carefully climbs out of Jūgo’s arms, limping over to the tree. She pulls a kunai from her weapon pouch and scratches off a small strip of exterior bark. The cambium bark beneath is brown and dry, the mark of a dead tree. Sakura purses her lips. She knew this was too good to be true.

She coughs, "Let’s get the wagons packed up and ready to go. Suigetsu, I need to borrow Kusanagi. Jūgo, give me a boost."

Suigetsu pushes himself up to his feet, a hand going to his hip; "What do you need it for?"

Sakura scans the crowd and meets San-Ha’s eyes. San-Ha crosses her arms over her chest, narrowing her eyes, but not blinking. The terms of their deal won’t change, no matter how much Sakura cries.

Sakura takes a deep breath, and replies, "I need to cut off Orochimaru’s head."

* * *

Takamaru is a good bird. Takamaru is a fast bird. It may be dark and cold, but the humans gave him a message and told him to fly fast to the Leaf, and Takamaru is a good bird who always does what he’s told. Takamaru flaps his wings as hard as he can, pushing to go quicker than quick, faster than fast, speedier than speed itself. The humans were upset. That means even the fastest bird in Sand has to be faster.

He is close, he knows he is, when the wind suddenly changes direction and pushes him _down_ instead of forward. Takamaru goes crashing through the branches and into the forest. He doesn’t fall for long. A hand catches him out of the air. When it closes around him, the stinging warmth that surrounds his humans pulses through him and forces a squawk from his beak. He wants to thrash and peck and claw, but it’s as if he’s asleep, but awake, because he can’t move even an inch. His heart is beating too too fast. He’s a good bird. A _good bird._ He has to move. He has to go to the Leaf village. He has to give them the message quickly, or he’s _not a good bird._

It’s dark, so so dark. He thinks a hand is covering his head. He’s scared. He knows what happens when humans catch ninja hawks. They take their messages off their backs, then kill them, and they are bad birds who didn’t do their jobs. He’s _scared._ He doesn’t want to be a bad bird.

He feels a hand take the message off his back. There’s a pulse of stinging warmth, faint, but close.

Everything is quiet for a terrifying moment, before a flat voice says, "This bird is from Sand. The Kazekage has been kidnapped by the Akatsuki."

Another voice, higher, but just as flat, asks, "Will this be detrimental to the operation in the East?"

There’s another long pause, then the first flat voice replies, "Negative. This will be a serviceable distraction, drawing the Hokage’s immediate attention West instead of East. We will have more time to work."

"Should we delay this bird any further?"

"Hold it for another hour. I’ll start back to headquarters and report to Danzo. He should know about this before the Hokage does."

There’s a brisk shift in the wind, quick and fleeting. Takamaru lies there, still and blind, for what feels like forever. But then the message is returned to it's place on his back, and the hand comes off his eyes. In an instant, he can flap his wings, shake his head, snap his beak. Takamaru takes a brief glance at the ninja that held him. Their feathers are black everywhere but their face, which is white and red with two dead black eyes that don’t shine right.

Takamaru takes off, flying for the Leaf Village. He will not let those ninja make him slow. He will fly even faster, even harder, and deliver his message. He will not be remembered as a bad bird.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You had Squirrel POV in Five Petals, now get ready for Hawk POV!


	5. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "Team Kakashi, your first official mission is to provide the Sand village with aid and support in rescuing the Kazekage," Tsunade declares, "Follow their orders and bring the Kazekage back alive. You leave at once."
> 
> Shikamaru pipes back up, adding, "Temari should be on the main road, she wasn’t in a rush. If you’re quick you can catch up to her."
> 
> "Good, that’s what I’m counting on," Sasuke says, turning on his heel and making for the door, "I have a plan."
> 
> "You have a plan?! _Already?!_ " Naruto splutters, scrambling to keep up.
> 
> "Keep them honest, Kakashi," Tsunade mutters, just before Kakashi’s through the threshold.
> 
> He spares her a masked smirk over one shoulder; "Don’t I always?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've gotten a surprising amount of inquiries about this (read: literally any), so for future: If you would like to follow me on other social media sites, I am ea_stull on Instagram and Twitter. I _try_ to be active on those, but I do not always succeed. I technically have a tumblr, but do NOT follow me there, because I do _not_ try to be active there, and I do _not_ want any more incentive than I currently have to fully backslide into using it with any amount of regularity because that site was is and continues to be a pox upon my house that made me into a significantly worse person than I would've been had I never touched it.
> 
> Back to the fic itself, some light artistic license has been taken re: the size of certain summons, pretty much entirely because my research has turned up Inconclusive™ on that front.

**IV.** Team Kakashi’s first act as a semi-official unit is to have a sleepover.

It’s a lot more practical than it sounds. Naruto’s apartment may have been kept open for him these last two years, but it’s _also_ one in the morning, and Naruto claims his landlord would take being woken up right now to get the keys _very poorly._ Combine that with the fact that the place is covered in dust and has no food in it, it’s a lot less hassle for Naruto to have a cup of instant ramen at Sasuke and Kakashi’s place and crash on the couch. It’s just good teamwork.

That’s how Naruto and Sasuke have found themselves sitting on either side of Kakashi’s tiny kitchen table, slurping up ramen Sasuke boiled in broth, transferred from cups to bowls, and added egg, pork, green onion and nori to. The dogs are all clustered under the table in a snoring pile, Bull acting as a footrest for Naruto. Kakashi is in his bedroom, but thanks to the thin walls Sasuke can hear him scribbling away at their team registration paperwork and swearing at the bureaucratic nonsense.

Naruto finishes off a particularly noisy bite and remarks, "I don’t know why I didn’t think about adding all this stuff to instant ramen myself, this is _way_ better than just eating it as is."

Sasuke shrugs and replies, "I mean, _I_ didn’t come up with this idea. Shizune came over once, saw me and Kakashi were both eating like crap because no one ever taught us how to cook, and came back the next day with a whole binder of meal plans and shit. She _then_ added 'teaching me how to cook' to our training regimen in between teaching me how to make poisons."

Naruto’s eyes go wide at that last point; "Wait– _Wait–_ You were learning to cook _and_ make poisons at the _same time?_ Did you–?"

Sasuke snorts around a wry smirk; "Yes, I _did_ get some things mixed up a few times. Nothing really bad, nobody had to get their stomach pumped, but Kakashi did nearly shit to death, so–"

Naruto cackles out loud; "Oh my _God!_ He must have been _so pissed_ at you!"

Sasuke snickers around a bite of ramen, "He knew the risks when he left dinner in my hands."

Naruto’s laughter tapers off into a thoughtful silence. He’s still smiling, but it’s a wisp of a thing. His eyes are far away. It’s an expression Sasuke hadn’t thought Naruto capable of before today. Sasuke’s brow furrows as he considers his friend. He doesn’t know what to do with this new, secretive, almost _shy_ side of Naruto. The boy he remembers seemed to blurt out every thought in his head as soon as he had it. Wherever this is coming from, whatever it’s hiding, Sasuke’s pretty sure he can’t take too direct an approach if he wants to break it open. He’s tried that before with people like Ino and Neji when they’re deep in a Mood, and the only thing that breaks is his nose.

So Sasuke comes at this from the side; "So, how would you rate your first day home? Better than expected, worse, what?"

Naruto purses his lips, pushing his egg around the ramen; "Hm… I guess it kinda evens out to average? Like, it was _great_ finally seeing you and Kakashi and everyone again, I can’t tell you how much I’ve missed you guys, and getting to show off some of what I’ve learned during the bell test was great, and getting put on a team with you guys is _awesome…_ "

Sasuke arches a brow; "But?"

Naruto lets out a long sigh; " _But…_ I 'unno, it feels stupid, I…" Naruto pauses again, frowning tightly down at his food. It doesn’t take someone especially skilled in reading people to realize Naruto’s deciding what he should and shouldn’t say. Sasuke just waits. He can’t really _force_ Naruto to say anything he doesn’t want to… Well. He _could_. But injecting your friends with sodium thiopental is generally frowned upon.

Naruto looks off toward the window and continues, "I knew in my head that I’d be missing a lot, but I guess in my heart I thought when I came back I’d just slot right back into the spot I left behind and things would be normal again. But you guys outrank me, and you’ve all been working together for two years, and… It’s _dumb,_ I shouldn’t have expected everything to be exactly the same but I still feel like an outsider when I’m with my _friends._ I…"

Naruto doesn’t _quite_ look him in the eye, but he gets close; "I thought I made so much _progress_ in making friends and making the village recognize me, but now it feels like all of it got wound back. Like, I think about becoming Hokage, and I just think about how Gaara stuck around his village and managed to become Kazekage while I was off training and… I wonder if I wasn’t off learning the wrong stuff."

Sasuke drums his fingers on the tabletop, thinking over his next words carefully. His first instinct is to tell Naruto that he’s completely right. It _had_ been a stupid idea for him to leave the village, where all his friends are, where his sensei is, where he would’ve been _perfectly safe._ He _has_ been learning the wrong things, because if _Sasuke_ has learned anything over the past two years it’s that no amount of strength and skill can make up for understanding the chain of command and how to adapt to new teammates and work with old ones when they’re being pains in your ass. He _is_ further away from his goal, because right now _Sasuke’s_ better qualified to be Hokage than Naruto is. But even if there’s a single kernel of truth in any of those statements, it doesn’t change that they’re born of bitterness, and that they’re just plain mean.

His second instinct is to tell Naruto’s he’s being an idiot. Of _course_ there’s going to be an adjustment period, he was _gone_ for _two years._ It isn’t like he’s coming home to people who couldn’t care less that he left. Everyone has missed him as much as he’s missed them. He has no idea how quiet the village has been without him, how Kiba has gotten louder to fill the silence, how Gaara ends every letter asking if he’s heard from Naruto, how Hinata drifts through the streets like a ghost. Everyone has been waiting for him to come back, and they’re willing to make more room if he can’t fill his old spot. But just _telling_ Naruto all of that won’t mean as much as when he actually meets up with everyone again and experiences it.

And his third instinct is to tell Naruto that of course everything isn’t back to normal yet. Because 'normal' includes Sakura. But… that’s not a conversation either of them are ready for.

So, with his shitty, petty, bitter, unhelpful instincts out of the way, Sasuke sighs, "I get where you’re coming from. I mean… I haven’t given up on the whole 'avenge and restore my clan' thing, you know. But I’m not out there chasing after Itachi. I’m _stronger,_ sure, but my training’s not really designed for assassinating single targets with Sharingan. Like… There will be times when I’m at the hospital, or I’m training with Lee, or I’m looking after the dogs, and I just find myself thinking _What am I doing? How is this helping me avenge the clan?_ It… feels like it’s never been further away, honestly."

Sasuke forces himself to take a bite of his ramen. It gives him more time to think. Naruto watches him eat, waiting quietly for him to continue.

Sasuke swallows, then says, "I guess it’s the sort of thing that’ll stop when Itachi’s dead. In the meantime, I… There’s this thing Tsunade says to patients when she’s prescribing some treatment or medicine they don’t like: _What’s good for us doesn’t always feel like the right thing, but you have to trust that it’ll help you in the long run._ I say it to myself, and I’m gonna say it to you _._ "

He looks Naruto in the eye, "Your skillset is way more diverse than it was before you left, you’re making better use of skills you already have and picking up new ones I don’t think anyone but Jiraiya would’ve actually tried to teach you. You are unequivocally a _stronger_ ninja for your time away. As for the rest, well, you just gotta trust that it’ll catch up."

Naruto’s face slowly breaks into one of his trademarked sunny grins; "Yeah… Yeah. Thanks, Sasuke."

Sasuke can tell there’s still more Naruto isn’t saying sitting somewhere low and dark. But it’s not gonna come up if Naruto doesn’t want it to. The time for pushing and emotional vulnerability has clearly passed.

So Sasuke cracks a smirk and replies, "Any time, Dumbass."

* * *

Shikamaru is surprised to find he’s _missed_ hearing Naruto miles before he actually sees him. He’s a few flights of stairs down from Tsunade’s office when he hears Naruto faintly jabbering something about seals being "a bitch and a half to paint on my own back". Shikamaru’s eyebrow lightly arches and he instantly makes the call that whatever that’s about, it’s none of his business. Naruto’s voice grows closer and closer until he comes around the curve in the hall, Sasuke at his side and Kakashi at his back.

Sasuke catches sight of him from the corner of his eye and grins, calling down the hall, "You’re up early!"

Shikamaru smirks and replies, "Someone had to walk Temari to the gates, and you know how Tsunade gets if you don’t report new developments _promptly_."

Naruto perks up and leans closer Sasuke, whispering conspiratorially, "He _walked her_ to the _gate?_ Oh they are _definitely_ –"

Before Naruto can finish that thought there’s a shout from just behind Shikamaru; "Out of the way! Urgent Cipher Corps business! Clear a path!"

And Shikamaru is suddenly catching an elbow to the side, the blow shoving him violently to the right as a young woman with half-finished makeup and short brown hair comes barreling through on his left. She almost gets all the way past Naruto, Sasuke, and Kakashi before glancing over her shoulder, spinning on her heel, and grabbing Sasuke by the elbow.

"Sasuke, great timing! I’m gonna need to borrow your Sharingan, hurry up and come with me!"

She doesn’t give Sasuke much choice in the matter. Sasuke’s bewildered expression is the last thing Shikamaru sees before he disappears around the bend in the hall. Naruto’s eyebrows are nearly up behind his headband as he gawks after his teammate.

He looks to Kakashi and asks, "Is Sasuke part of the _Cipher Corps_ too?"

Kakashi runs a hand through his hair with a sigh; "No, but as the Hokage’s apprentice he spends so much of his time in the tower that everyone here knows who he is and what he can do. And Tsunade doesn’t mind loaning him out if it’s urgent, so," Kakashi shoves his hands in his pockets and starts walking back the way they came, "Let’s go see what all the ruckus is."

Naruto nods and sprints after Sasuke. Shikamaru just watches the former Team Seven dart back down the hall, staying rooted to the spot. Now that _definitely_ is none of his business. Emergencies are the very definition of "a drag", and he was looking forward to going back to sleep after reporting in. Still… can’t hurt to let Tsunade know she’s in for an early morning headache. Shikamaru climbs the rest of the way up to Tsunade’s door and raps a loose rhythm on it with the back of his hand.

Tsunade’s voice is _already_ painted with a tinge of agitation and exhaustion; "Come in."

Shikamaru opens the door and begins, "So I’ve got good news and bad news."

Tsunade looks up from her mountain of paperwork with a long-suffering sigh, "Of course you do. You know the drill, good news first."

"Good news, Temari’s safely on her way back home," Shikamaru reports, hands going into his pockets, "I saw her to the Western Gate a half hour ago, because that woman is an ungodly early riser. I’d say that marks my mission of escorting her around as officially complete, wouldn’t you?"

Tsunade arches an eyebrow and cracks a smirk; "I’d call that going _above and beyond_ the call of duty, especially for your lazy ass. Are you looking for a medal, or am I not the girl you’re trying to impress?"

Shikamaru pinches the bridge of his nose; "Of _course_ Sasuke’s infected _you,_ too. Is _that_ why I keep being assigned to be her escort? Because you’re playing _matchmaker?_ "

Tsunade snorts out a chuckle; "I have no idea what you’re talking about. Now, the bad news?"

Shikamaru runs a hand through his hair; "Right, that. So, bad news, three quarters of Team Seven are probably gonna come rushing in here in like five minutes with _even worse_ news. They were on their way here when a member of the Cipher Corps came barreling through like a bat out of Hell, shouting about urgent business, then she grabbed Sasuke so she could use his Sharingan. If she doesn’t think there’s time to crack genjutsu ciphers the old-fashioned way, we’ve probably got something bad on our hands."

Tsunade’s brow furrows; "Where were they going?"

Shikamaru frowns and replies, "The codebreaker was heading East, so probably the aviary. Why, were you _expecting_ some bad news this morning?"

Tsunade drums her long nails on the tabletop, creating a rhythmic clicking sound; "Not exactly."

This is none of Shikamaru’s business. He’s done what he came here to do. Prying leads to trouble and work and the rest of your day going up in smoke.

But his mouth is opening before he can stop it and he’s asking, "What do you mean by that?"

Tsunade gives him a considering look for a moment, her eyes flickering to the window before she answers, "Usually, when I get here in the morning this desk is covered in reports from ninja on missions outside the village– Those who _can_ take the risk of making reports, anyway. But," she gestures to her desk. Shikamaru scans the documents, skimming their contents. What few mission reports he can find are either domestic, or dated too far back to have come in any earlier than yesterday.

The wheels are turning in Shikamaru’s mind and he already has a million questions, but the room hasn’t been secured, so all he says is, "That’s weird."

Tsunade nods; "Very."

The door slams open and Sasuke’s voice calls over it, "Ma’am, we’ve got an emergency!"

Shikamaru gets violently shoved aside for the second time this morning as Sasuke comes storming up to Tsunade’s desk, an open scroll in hand and Naruto and Kakashi on his heels. Naruto’s eyes are wide and his jaw clenched tight. Kakashi’s one dark eye is hard and sharp, but beyond that he’s unreadable. Sasuke slaps the scroll down on Tsunade’s desk and Shikamaru peers at it over his shoulder. It’s written in code, of course, but even though Shikamaru can identify the cipher in seconds and probably break it in a few more, that’s not what he’s focusing on. For something this urgent… the ink seems too dry.

Sasuke’s voice draws him back to the present; "This came from the Sand Village on the back of their fastest bird. The Akatsuki infiltrated the Sand Village and kidnapped Gaara at midnight last night!"

Shikamaru’s blood runs cold. The voices of Sasuke and Tsunade come through in muffled pieces as his mind races, loud and fast as a freight train.

"… any other details, anything else we can…"

The ink is too dry. It’s _absolutely_ too dry. A message this urgent, a situation this urgent, the longest they would’ve delayed before sending off their fastest bird has to have been an hour at most. The Akatsuki may have hit the village, may have taken down more than just Gaara on their way in and out, but no amount of chaos or confusion could’ve kept them from sending a message to their strongest ally for any longer than that.

"… heading East, towards us, when they left the village. It also says Kankuro went after them, but…"

Their fastest bird, that has to be Takamaru. He’s asked Temari about this before, she knows everything about Sand’s airborne division, she knows every hawk by name. She said Takamaru’s top speed is thirty miles an hour. Sand is ninety miles away. Assuming a delay of an hour between Gaara’s kidnapping and this message going out, Takamaru should’ve arrived somewhere around four in the morning.

"… only two of them, one on a large bird the other walking, but the one on the bird didn’t fly ahead of his partner…"

There’s always someone in the aviary for eventualities _exactly_ like this one. Unless someone called in sick last minute, there’s no way Takamaru arrived earlier to an empty aviary. Even if he came in while someone was on break, that would only lead to a five or ten minute delay. The Cipher Corps are a branch of the intelligence division. Even with all the emergency protocols meant to cut through bureaucratic delays between the two divisions, thanks to the Intelligence Division not running twenty four-seven there would still be a delay of anywhere between a half hour and an hour between receiving this message and getting it decrypted. It’s currently six in the morning. Takamaru couldn’t have gotten here any earlier than five.

Shikamaru cuts in, "This message was delayed. By an hour at least, maybe two."

Everyone shoots him a questioning glance and he runs through the short version of his thought process. As he speaks Sasuke’s grip on the scroll tenses up, threatening to tear the paper. Tsunade starts cracking the knuckles on her left hand, finger by finger. Kakashi’s gaze drifts to the window and scans the horizon. Naruto’s eyes keep bouncing around, from Shikamaru to Tsunade to his teammates and back to Shikamaru.

"The weather’s too mild this time of year both here _and_ in Eastern Wind Country for a foul wind to have thrown him off," Shikamaru concludes, "So all I can think is that this was deliberate. The Akatsuki are the most _obvious_ suspects, but that just begs the question of why they wouldn’t just kill the bird and burn the message so no one knows what they’re up to. Personally, I’d rule them as _too_ obvious."

Kakashi crosses his arms over his chest; "That’s all incredibly worrying, but the most worrying part _is_ that we don’t have _time_ to dwell on that. We have no idea what the Akatsuki actually intend to _do_ with the jinchūriki, but it’s safe to say we don’t want to find out. We’re racing against time."

Tsunade steeples her fingers over her mouth, brows drawn together in thought; "Yes, we are… Under any other circumstances, I’d have no choice but to send out the first qualified shinobi I see on this mission, but…"

But sending Naruto could be as good as hand-delivering him to the Akatsuki all tied up in a bow. But the last time Sasuke had to choose between taking revenge and saving a jinchūriki from the Akatsuki, he chose revenge. But the last time Naruto and Sasuke were sent to rescue someone important to them from certain doom, they almost singlehandedly fucked the whole mission up and sent her there themselves.

Shikamaru looks to Naruto. He keeps _starting_ to speak, but catching himself and biting his tongue. His eyes keep dropping to the floor. No doubt he’s remembering everything Shikamaru is, point by point, in agonizing, humiliating detail. Could Naruto handle something like _this_ being his first mission back? Could he handle _failing_ a mission like this a second time?

His eyes shift to Sasuke. Sasuke always sits in an odd gray area with his tells, where you know _something_ is on his mind, but never specifically _what_. Right now his eyes are shut, his head bowed, his lips pursed tight.

After a few long heartbeats, Sasuke opens his eyes; "Ma’am, you have the final say. You always do. But just know that I’m not going to let something like Shukuba Town happen ever again."

Naruto’s eyes go wide as he stares at Sasuke’s profile in something like awe. Kakashi looks away to hide the subtle shifting of his mask in a smile. Tsunade holds Sasuke’s gaze for a moment. She reaches out and gives his hand a quiet squeeze, one he returns.

"Team Kakashi, your first official mission is to provide the Sand village with aid and support in rescuing the Kazekage," Tsunade declares, "Follow their orders and bring the Kazekage back alive. You leave at once."

Shikamaru pipes back up, adding, "Temari should be on the main road, she wasn’t in a rush. If you’re quick you can catch up to her."

"Good, that’s what I’m counting on," Sasuke says, turning on his heel and making for the door, "I have a plan."

"You have a plan?! _Already?!_ " Naruto splutters, scrambling to keep up.

"Keep them honest, Kakashi," Tsunade mutters, just before Kakashi’s through the threshold.

He spares her a masked smirk over one shoulder; "Don’t I always?"

Kakashi shuts the door behind him. Shikamaru immediately gets to work, hands zooming through the signs for a genjutsu to cloak the inside of the office from prying eyes and ears. Tsunade stands up and makes a circuit of the room. Shikamaru can feel the hairs on the back of his neck stand up as she sends out pulses of chakra in the hopes that they’ll bounce off anyone or anything hidden in plain sight. After a few moments, Tsunade taps her foot on the ground in rhythm: _A L L C L E A R._

"No other reports have gotten through all morning, but _that one_ does," Shikamaru remarks, "It’s still early, there could be mundane reasons for the delay, but it’s highly unlikely _literally every other shinobi_ we have in the field all sent their hawks out into bad weather."

"And it’s a Hell of a report to let through," Tsunade adds, putting her hands on her hips, "With an allied Kage’s life in danger I _have_ to make this the priority. I’d call it a perfect ruse if it wasn’t something so hard to fake."

Shikamaru glares down at the scroll; "Our _shadow_ seems to be getting ambitious."

Tsunade arches a brow; "You have a name for them now?"

Shikamaru nods; "Dogging our every step, working just out of sight, acting shady as all Hell toward an end I still can’t see– You know I of all people hate to call them this, but 'shadow' fits pretty damn well, doesn’t it?"

Tsunade looks away with a sigh, "Fair enough. I won’t ask you to look into this, but I won’t stop you, either. Just be careful."

Shikamaru nods as he walks to the door; "You too, Lady Hokage."

Shikamaru heads back out into the tower. Great. Now he needs to find Choji and Ino and tell them they’ve got an unofficial mission to root out village corruption first thing in the morning.

What an absolute _fucking_ drag.

* * *

Temari’s not really sure if there’s a _good_ time to be waylaid four miles into your ninety mile journey home by two of your youngest brother’s three friends so they can tell you he’s been kidnapped by a mysterious crime syndicate, but she’s sure that eight fifteen in the morning is the _worst_ time for it.

After years spent being afraid _of_ Gaara it always comes as a bone-shaking shock when Temari finds herself afraid _for_ him. Gaara’s supposed to be an invincible monster with an impenetrable defense and unquenchable thirst for blood. But that Gaara died the day Sakura Haruno scarred his face. Now, the Gaara in her mind’s eye is all thin wrists, heavy eyelids, and secret smiles quickly hidden behind a hand or a turn of the head. She couldn’t give a damn what could happen to the One Tail if the Akatsuki get their hands on it. For all the grief it’s given the Sand Village they can take it. But they can’t take her brother. They _won’t_.

The instant Sasuke finishes detailing the situation, Temari snaps, "We need to get to get moving. _Now_."

"I agree we do, but," Sasuke cuts in, "We don’t have three days to spare. Technically speaking you’re in command, Temari, so you can shoot down anything we suggest. But, if you’re willing to listen, I have a plan."

Temari narrows her eyes. Sasuke’s plans aren’t nearly as reliable as Shikamaru’s, that much she knows. But that’s an impossible standard to live up to. She gives the kid an apprising look, scanning him up and down. He’s tense, but focused, eyes steadily on her. On either side of him Kakashi and Naruto stand solid. She doesn’t know either one of them well, but she can reason that if a _jonin_ is staying quiet and letting Sasuke take the lead, whatever he’s got up his sleeve might have merit.

As she’s thinking, Naruto chimes in, "Listen, he went over it with us while we were catching up with you, and it’s a _little_ crazy but like– It’s the kind of crazy that’ll _work, believe_ it."

Temari arches a brow; "I’m listening."

"Alright, so first I need to know something," Sasuke begins, reaching over his shoulder to rifle around in his pack, "I know Sand has a whole airborne division, and I know you’re one of the best Wind Style users in the village. Is there any way you can use Wind Style to travel by air?"

Temari’s other brow hops up to join it’s twin; "I– Well, yes. In theory I could ride on my summon’s back and cut the journey down to half a day. But that requires a _lot_ of chakra to keep a hold of him and keep him on course. And at _best_ he can handle _one_ other passenger. I don’t know any way to get us _all_ there in under three days."

"That’s fine," Sasuke replies, hand emerging from his pack holding a small potted cactus, "Not all of us _need_ to get there that fast."

He passes the plant to Kakashi; "You said the dogs could get Gaara’s scent off this?"

Kakashi holds the plant up to his face. There’s a soft glow beneath his mask as he channels chakra into his nose and takes a whiff, sniffing around the plant, the soil, and the pot.

After a moment punctuated only by the sound of a human man snuffling at the plant like a hound, Kakashi reports, "I’m getting your scent, the pot, the soil, the plant itself, and… _there_ he is. Well, if _I_ can unearth Gaara’s scent beneath all of those, the dogs should have no problem."

Temari crosses her arms over her chest, shifting in place as her feet itch to sprint for home; "Cut to the chase and tell me where you’re going with this."

"Happy to, now that I’m sure it can work," Sasuke replies, "The plan is that you and I fly ahead to Sand to provide immediate aid to the village. Meanwhile, Naruto and Kakashi make their way to Sand on foot with the dogs fanning out around them, looking for Gaara’s scent. The Akatsuki were heading East out of Sand. With the dogs looking for Gaara, at best we catch them while they’re still in transit, at worst we rule out a search area."

Temari purses her lips; "Splitting the team is always a gamble, Uchiha."

Sasuke crosses his arms over his chest, face set in a determined frown; "I’d rather gamble with _our_ lives than Gaara’s."

Temari shuts her eyes tight, biting down on the inside of her lower lip. And there’s the rub. A safe bet for them is a death sentence for Gaara. Even if the Akatsuki don’t kill him in the next three days, that’s still three days of travel they’ll have on them by the time they get to the Sand Village, and they’ll keep that lead when it’s time to turn around and actually pursue them. They _already_ have an eight hour lead. With a Kage’s life– with her _brother’s_ life– on the line, they can’t afford to do anything less than risk it all.

Temari opens her eyes and stalks up until she’s nearly nose to nose with Sasuke, hissing through her teeth, "If this blows up in our faces I will make you _regret it._ "

"You won’t have to," Sasuke states, voice clear and steady, "Summon your weasel. I have one last touch to put on this."

Temari steps back and Sasuke immediately drops to one knee, biting the pad of his thumb hard enough to draw blood. He races through signs and slaps his hands on the dirt. In a puff of smoke a fragment of Katsuyu appears, about the size of a small cat, before immediately splitting into two palm-sized Katsuyus. Sasuke picks up one and gingerly buttons her into his jacket pocket before handing the other to Naruto.

"Keep her close and keep her safe," Sasuke instructs, keeping his eyes locked on Naruto as he flails to find a suitable spot for the slug, "She’ll act as a method of long-range communication between us. If you find something worthwhile out there, tell her and she’ll tell us."

Temari leans on her fan and allows herself the ghost of a smirk; "Couldn’t spring for a radio?"

Sasuke rolls his eyes; "Didn’t have time to requisition one. Besides, Katsuyu’s more reliable over longer distances."

"She’d better be," Temari mutters, taking several more steps back and unfurling her fan. She breaks the skin on her own thumb and runs through the motions of Summoning, swiping her blood along her fan. Kamatari appears in a swirl of smoke and wind, the horse-sized weasel drifting to the ground and quizzically fixing his one sharp eye on Temari.

Temari reaches out and strokes behind his ear; "There’s an emergency. We’re going for a ride."

Kamatari’s eye narrows and he rumbles from deep in his chest, "You’re sure?"

She bobs her head in a shallow nod; "Yeah. It’s that bad."

She swings one leg over his narrow back and pats the spot just behind her. Sasuke ambles onto the weasel, shifting around as he tries to find the best way to distribute his weight. Once he’s found it he loops his arms around Temari’s midsection. Chakra floods his forearms, turning his grip iron tight. Temari channels chakra into her arms and legs, affixing herself to Kamatari’s back.

She leans down until her chin is settled between his ears; "Take off."

Kamatari shoots off the ground like a bullet from a gun. The wind threatens to tear Temari’s hair out of it’s four tails, but it holds fast. She grits her teeth as the wind cuts at her cheeks. She tugs hard on Kamatari’s fur, making him shift ever so slightly to put him on a direct course for the Sand Village. Her eyes water and burn, but she can’t close them. She won’t. Not until her feet touch the ground again.

Temari presses herself flush to Kamatari’s back and hunkers down for eleven hours of the wind howling in her ears.

* * *

A shinobi’s most valuable tool is their body. That in and of itself is their greatest strength and their greatest weakness. A shinobi stripped of their weapons and gear can still fight so long as they have chakra. A properly trained and sufficiently talented shinobi can be more destructive than a siege engine and isn’t restricted to traveling over roads, letting them take quicker, more direct routes. But it’s _because_ they rely so much on their body that a shinobi can’t afford to run it ragged, even ( _especially_ ) when a politically important life is on the line. They may be able to take the more direct route, but that’s not worth much when they’re forced to lose hours of progress resting and recuperating every night.

Kakashi can’t help but curse that as he and Naruto stop to make camp in a rocky cavern ensconced by cotton trees. They’ve barely crossed the border of the Land of Rivers, but the setting sun forced their hand. For one, they’ve been running for eight hours straight. He’s not sure about Naruto, but Kakashi aches down to his bones and his eye is _screaming_ for him to close it. More importantly, travel by night is risky enough in the Land of Fire’s dense forests, but the Land of Rivers’ terrain is… _difficult,_ to say the least _._

Penned in on either side by imposing mountains, the country’s interior is an intricate web of gorges, crags, and river valleys, all shaded and hidden by tall trees. In the Land of Fire, if you’re jumping through the canopy in the dark and miss a branch you just hit the forest floor. In the Land of Rivers, at _best_ you’ll go rolling all the way down a mountainside. At worst, you plummet hundreds of feet into whitewater rapids and they never find your body.

The thought makes a shiver run up Kakashi’s spine as he lights a modest campfire. The dogs still haven’t circled back. He sent them off after Gaara’s scent moments after Sasuke and Temari left. He knows they’re faster than him and Naruto by a wide margin. He knows they can see five times better in the dark than any human. He knows he trained them to be smart when scouting, to hide when they can, flee when they can’t, and only fight when they’re cornered. And yet…

"Are you worried?"

Kakashi blinks rapidly, eye darting to Naruto. He’s sitting in a loose ball by the fire, elbows resting on his knees. His lips are pursed as he cautiously looks him over. It dawns on Kakashi that, despite how simple the question is, because _Naruto_ is the one asking he has _no idea_ how to respond. Shame congeals in his stomach, heavy and dense like mud.

Naruto shifts in place, frowning just a bit and letting his gaze drop to the dirt; "About the dogs, I mean. I know there’s a lot worth worrying about right now, but that’s like… The closest thing, I guess."

Kakashi clears his throat like he’s giving himself the Heimlich Maneuver and forces himself to speak; "Yeah. I suppose no matter how well I train them I’ll always worry."

The tiny smile on Naruto’s face doesn’t reach his eyes, but it’s not for lack of trying; "Man, you spent so much time talking tough when our team first started out, I can’t get over what a big sap you turned out to be."

Kakashi arches a brow, fishing a ration out of his flak jacket pocket as he mutters, "Takes one to know one, I suppose."

Kakashi has a feeling that if he was Sasuke Naruto would’ve fired back another good-natured insult, maybe thrown something at him, and the tension would take a backseat to banter. As it stands, they lapse into an awkward silence as Kakashi eats behind a volume of Icha Icha and Naruto stares into the fire.

After a few tentative nibbles, Kakashi pulls his mask back up and coughs, "What about you? You’ve been out of sorts since Sasuke decoded the message. Worried about Gaara?"

Naruto flinches slightly as Kakashi’s question brings him back to the moment; "Yeah."

"Understandable," Kakashi ventures, eye refusing to settle on Naruto’s face, "He’s not just the Kazekage, not to you. The two of you are… close, right?"

Naruto shrugs a shoulder; "I mean, close as we can be when we’ve only talked like three times."

"Well, yes, but you’re both jinchūriki. The two of you share something only seven other people in the world could possibly understand."

Naruto stares into the fire for a long, silent moment, before clenching his hands into tight fists; "He worked his ass off to finally get his village to respect and recognize him. To work that hard, struggle that much, deal with all that heartache and loneliness, only to die or worse _right_ when life’s finally getting good… It isn’t fair. It’s _wrong._ I’m not gonna let that happen."

Kakashi frowns behind his mask. There’s a fine line between empathy and projection, and Naruto is balanced on it like a tightrope walker. But he can’t really judge, can he? He’s been walking that line with Sasuke since they met…

And it’s as Kakashi’s thinking that over that he realizes they’ve dropped into _another_ awkward silence. He can never find the right thing to say to Naruto, can he? Suppose it just goes to show that the longer you put something off, the harder it becomes.

There’s a rustle from the undergrowth. Naruto and Kakashi leap to their feet, weapons in hand and eyes trained on the noise’s source. They hold their breath until a furry, quadrupedal form breaks through the foliage and lopes into their campsite. The firelight glints off Akino’s sunglasses as the ninja hound strolls casually up to them.

He settles down and scratches behind his ear with a whuff of, "We caught the scent, Boss."

Naruto’s eyes go wider than the sky and in an instant he’s crouched in front of Akino, voice coming out in a frantic rush; "You did?! Where?! When?! How far?! What way was it going?! Can we still catch him?!"

Kakashi drops to one knee at Naruto’s side; "One question at a time, Naruto. Akino, give us the rest of your report."

"We caught it fifteen miles Southwest of here, somewhere in the Sand-River border range," Akino continues, "Scouting it left us as certain as we can be that the scent’s heading Northeast. It’s not going all that fast, two miles an hour at best. The rest of the pack is working on triangulating the scent, seein’ if they can’t get more precise info. For now, take a sharp turn South toward the Hidden Valley Village and you’ll likely intercept it in another five hours. If _you’re_ quick and _they_ don’t veer off course, anyway."

"And if neither of us falls to our deaths on the way there," Kakashi mutters, "Which is _very_ sizable 'if'."

"But–! He’s so _close,_ " Naruto insists, throwing a hand out wide in a vague but emphatic gesture, "What’s the point of all this scent tracking and us lagging behind Sasuke and Temari if we get right on top Gaara and just _let him_ _go?!_ "

"I’m not saying we do _nothing,_ " Kakashi counters, "I _am_ saying that five hours is a serious investment of time and energy, especially after what we’ve put in so far. It’s a _risk._ With Gaara’s life on the line and ours in the balance, we have to assess every risk carefully."

Naruto’s face screws up into a frown; "What are you talking about? I could do another five hours no problem!"

Kakashi narrows his eye; "Yes, I have no doubt _you_ could. You’re young and you have a tailed beast providing you with extra chakra and stamina. I’m _not_ young anymore and _don’t_ have that advantage. We’re in this together. We have to consider each other as much as Gaara when moving forward."

Naruto scratches his head as he thinks out loud; "I mean, we have soldier pills…"

"Yes, we do, but if we take them that puts a hard three day time limit on this mission," Kakashi replies, "If the mission runs over, whoever takes one passes out and leaves the rest of the work to Sasuke, Temari, and whatever backup Tsunade can scrounge up. I’ll grant you that you can soften the impact if you take half a pill, but that also gives you half the energy."

Naruto scowls at the dirt for a few more moments, then looks Kakashi in the eye; "I don’t know what the Akatsuki actually wanna do to Gaara or me or any of us jinchūriki. But I… I dunno, there’s a feeling in my gut like if we haven’t gotten Gaara in three days, we’re probably already too late."

Kakashi can’t help a hard sigh through his nose. There’s really no counterpoint to that. At the end of the day, they’re trying to rescue not only the Kazekage but the vessel of a beast more powerful than an army of shinobi fighting at their best. Taking Gaara back alive is almost less important than making sure the Akatsuki don’t get away with the One Tail. Much as they can’t afford to come into a fight exhausted and blind, the price they pay if they arrive even a moment too late is far steeper.

Kakashi fishes around in his pack and retrieves two soldier pills; "Best we take them whole, then."

Naruto’s eyes light up and he snatches the pill from Kakashi’s hand, swallowing it dry.

Kakashi can’t help but cringe; "Not even going to _think_ about washing it down?"

The grin Naruto cracks is bright but sharp, more like the ones he pulls in battle than with friends; "Like we’ve got time for that! Come on, old timer, take your pills and let’s get going! Gaara’s counting on us and we’re not gonna let him down, believe it!"

Kakashi shakes his head; "In for a penny, I suppose. Akino, take point and guide us toward the scent."

Akino nods and gets to his feet, shaking out his fur; "Whatever you say, Boss."

Kakashi snuffs out the fire, swallows his soldier pill dry, and leaps into the dark.

* * *

Zahra has no idea how long she’s been staring out at the horizon, only that her eyes are starting to sting.

She takes the binoculars down and rubs at her eyes. Of all the duties to be assigned in the aftermath of the Kazekage’s kidnapping, she’s certain keeping watch on top of the wall is the most humiliating. The most she’s seen all day is the team that retrieved Kankuro shlepping back to the gates, defeated and carrying his unconscious body. The sun set an hour ago and she _still_ hasn’t been reassigned. Nobody’s going to come over the horizon with good news any time soon and they know it. No, she knows why she’s here. She’s not strong enough to clear the rubble blocking the gate, she doesn’t have enough medical training to provide care to the wounded, and she doesn’t have the mobility to go out and comb the desert. The only thing she’s good for is staring at nothing.

Zahra heaves a sigh, letting her hair down from it’s tail. One upside of being on night watch, it’s now cold enough that having her hair on her neck isn’t unbearable. The downside is going to come in another hour or so, when it gets too cold and windy to bear being up this high. Hopefully by then someone will come to relieve her. Hopefully. With all the chaos in the village over their kidnapped leader and the only people who could take his place indisposed, she won’t be surprised if they forget about her completely and she has to spend all night up here.

Zahra hoists the binoculars back up to her face and settles in for another four to five hours of seeing absolutely nothing. Those plans are ruined by a whirling gyre of wind and sand coming over the horizon at a breakneck pace. Zahra nearly drops her binoculars, one hand keeping them on her eyes while the other reaches blindly around for her radio. She has it up to her mouth and is about to call in an unknown hostile when a bead of golden light flies straight up from the gyre. It races high into the sky before it explodes in a burst of yellow flame, almost like a firework.

Zahra fumbles with her radio for a few tense seconds before turning it on and shouting, "Jōnin Baki, this is Genin Zahra at the Western Wall reporting an unidentified flying object coming towards the village from the East! V-visual is unclear, just a lot of sand and wind, but they fired off an airborne division flare signaling them as a friendly needing to make an urgent landing! They’re moving at… at uh… they’re moving _really fast!_ What do I– I-I mean, please advise!"

There’s a silence a second or two longer than she’d like before Baki’s voice comes through in a garbled bark, "Fire off an 'all clear' answering flare, then get out of the way! If that is who I think it is, she’s gonna land right on top of you once she gets that signal!"

Zahra’s eyes go wide and she yelps out a swear, scrambling to haul her radio, binoculars, and flares up as she sprints to one side. She drops the rest of her tools in a clattering heap as she grabs one of the flares and pulls fire chakra up from her belly, spitting a bead of flame onto it’s fuse. She throws it up into the air the moment before the fuse burns all the way down and the flare fires off into the sky. The explosion is deafening and the burst of green light near-blinding. Zahra blinks the spots out of her vision just in time to see the gyre of wind and sand is halfway across the desert and gaining. If her quick mental math is right, that thing is going to be on top of her in–

The gyre suddenly picks up speed. Zahra shrieks and drops low, covering her head as the sound of howling wind comes closer and closer. The wind whips at her hair and her skin, sharp and hard enough to cut. In one last wail, the blurry object slams directly into where Zahra had been standing moments before. Wind spirals out from the impact zone and knocks her all the way onto her back. She throws her hands up to block her face as the wind kicks up enough sand to leave scrapes all over Zahra’s unarmored forearms.

The wind dies down as quickly as it arrived. Zahra slowly drops her arms and rolls to her knees to peek at the new arrivals. Sliding off the back of a giant weasel is none other than Temari, the Kazekage’s older sister and de facto commander of the airborne division. Her cheeks and nose are red from the wind’s constant bite, her arms and legs shaking, her lips blue. Hopping off right behind her, looking far less worse for wear, is a boy Zahra has never seen before. Even if she hadn’t caught the headband tied around his leg, she’d recognize him as a Leaf Village ninja by his fair skin and bulky jacket– neither are suited to life in the desert.

The giant weasel disappears in a burst of white smoke and Temari struggles to her feet, using her fan for support. She catches sight of Zahra out of the corner of her eye and opens her mouth to speak, but snaps it shut and covers it as she leans forward, stifling a retching sound.

The Leaf Village boy steadies her with an arm around her shoulders, keeping her upright as he mutters, "You don’t need to push yourself anymore, let me take things from here," before catching Zahra’s eye and his voice going sharp, "You have a radio, call whoever’s in charge right now and tell them Chūnin Medic Sasuke Uchiha from the Hidden Leaf Village has arrived with Jōnin Temari. Tell them we’re the advance support from the Leaf Village, and that Temari is suffering from Chakra Exhaustion."

Zahra’s jaw drops. She may never have _seen_ this boy before, but she knows that name. The Last Uchiha and apprentice to Legendary Sannin Tsunade Senju– Being _one_ of those things would make you merely interesting, being both at the same time makes you _famous_. She makes the call to Baki with sweaty palms and a shivering voice, eyes constantly darting back to Sasuke. Sasuke isn’t returning the favor, preoccupied with crushing up some kind of tablet into Temari’s canteen and urging her to drink. She gulps it down like she’s been lost in the desert for weeks.

Baki’s reply comes in quick and harsh; "Bring them to the hospital _immediately!_ "

Zahra chokes out a quick "Yes, sir," and turns off her radio, relaying to Sasuke, "I-I’m supposed to take you to the hospital–"

Sasuke has one of Temari’s arms over his shoulders and is making his way to the stairs; "No need, I know where it is."

Zahra’s voice comes out in a squeak as she sprints to catch up; "W-wait, no, you can’t–! T-technically we haven’t verified your identity so I can’t let you go in without an escort–!"

Sasuke glares over his shoulder at her, eyes flashing a bright red as he activates the Sharingan. Zahra stumbles over her own feet, breath caught in her throat.

He snarls through bared teeth, "Is _that_ verification enough for you?"

Zahra’s mouth might as well be glued shut. He rolls his eyes and turns away from her, taking the stairs two at a time. Sasuke homes in on the hospital like a hunting hawk and is at it’s doors in an instant. He kicks the door open hard enough that the hinges scream at the sudden impact, swinging violently in his wake.

The hospital waiting room is a wide space with many branching hallways coming off it like spokes in a wheel. Seats for patients and desks for nurses and orderlies sit on the very edge of the room, leaving plenty of space for large amounts of patients to be rushed through or– in highly dire situations– the room itself to act as ICU, operating theater, and whatever else they need it to be. Plants with little need for sunlight or water sit in the furthest corners, basking in the bright, recessed, artificial lighting beaming down on them. Adobe walls keep it cool during the day, warm during the night.

Baki is standing in the center of the waiting room, flanked by medics on either side; "Chūnin Uchiha. You’re early. Will there be more of you?"

Sasuke nods; "We have others coming behind us on foot. They’re tracking the Kazekage’s scent, seeing if they can’t catch the Akatsuki en route before they get here. I came ahead to assist in your relief efforts, under orders from Lady Tsunade to defer to you."

Temari takes another long gulp from her canteen and gasps, "Where’s Kankuro?"

Baki’s jaw clenches, and he mutters through his teeth, "He’s the reason you’re both here. Follow me, I’ll brief you."

He leads them towards the stairs as he explains, "Kankuro managed to catch up to the Akatsuki and engage them, but obviously he didn’t win. The agent he fought coated their weapons in some sort of poison. A potent one, too– He was able to manage a few sentences of a report, then started lapsing in and out of consciousness. This was five hours ago, and he’s been completely unresponsive ever since."

"Let me guess," Temari huffs, "Chiyo has refused to come out of retirement and help, like she _always_ does, the ragged old bi–"

"Worse," Baki replies, "She’s up there with him right now, has been for hours. She can’t identify the poison. The only thing she knows for sure is that it’s designed to make the target suffer a slow, painful death. On the plus side, we have a few more days to–"

"No," Sasuke cuts in, voice hard and dark as obsidian, "We _do not_ have 'a few more days’. I _know_ poisons like that, I’ve _made_ poisons like that. They’re designed to make you _think_ you have time. If you let the poison ravage the body for long enough, even if you develop an antidote and save their life the damage done to the tissue and organs in the meantime will still take the victim out of action– maybe temporarily, usually permanently, _especially_ if it’s doing anything to the brain. We don’t have days. We have _hours._ "

Baki doesn’t respond with words. He instead responds by sending a burst of chakra to the soles of his feet and breaking into a run. Sasuke is quick on his heels, keeping up easily despite Temari’s weight on his shoulder. They climb all the way to the top floor, Sasuke stopping only when they’re right outside the door to one of the operating theaters to ease off Temari.

"Do you think you can stand on your o–?"

Temari sprints out of his grasp and through the door, calling her brother’s name like it’s being torn out of her throat. Sasuke and Baki quickly follow, but Baki has to pause once he’s through. He’s seen it so many times since Kankuro’s return, but the sight of him like this never fails to make his blood run cold.

Seeing Kankuro without his face paint and puppeteer garb is like seeing him naked. With his hair exposed and his features on full display, the resemblance between him and the Fourth Kazekage makes Baki’s stomach roll. His skin is pale and clammy, the sheen of sweat glistening almost yellow in the fluorescent light. His eyes are _mostly_ closed. Like this he can see them glazed over, twitching in their sockets, moving without seeing. Baki is used to hearing Kankuro’s voice shouting orders, drawling through jokes he knows are horrible, and chuffing rough but sincere praise to his siblings. It’s just not _made_ for these weak, pained groans and hoarse, wheezing breaths.

Temari shoves her way past the medics standing vigil around Kankuro and crashes to her knees at his bedside. She takes his hand in hers, squeezing it with white knuckles.

Baki can’t see her face from this angle, but he doesn’t need to, not when he can hear Temari whispering, "Hey, Kankuro, it’s me. It’s Tem. I’m here now. I brought help, I _promise_ you’re gonna be okay and we’re gonna get Gaara back, I promise. I’m sorry, I’m _so sorry_ I wasn’t here sooner, but I’m here now, I’m here–"

Kankuro’s fingers twitch in Temari’s grip. Baki’s throat tightens and he forces his gaze over to Sasuke. Sasuke elbows his way through the medics and up to Kankuro’s side, Sharingan flaring to life. His jacket is off and around his waist in seconds, a thin membrane of chakra coating his hands like latex gloves as he starts poking and prodding at Kankuro’s body. He opens one of Kankuro’s eyes all the way and fishes a tiny flashlight out of one of his jacket pockets, shining it on his eye for a few moments before pocketing it again and forcibly opening his mouth, probing around inside with his fingers. Well. You can’t say he isn’t being thorough.

After a few more moments of examination he holds one hand out to the medics and snaps, "Chart. Now."

The medics exchange astonished glances before the one nearest to Sasuke blinks rapidly, stammering, "I-I– Who–?"

There’s a clatter nearby and an elderly voice snaps, "Just _who_ do you think you are, _boy?!_ "

Sasuke is the only person whose head doesn’t whip toward the new commotion. Chiyo is fuming at her workstation, scrolls, vials, various and sundry herbs _all_ forgotten in favor of glaring poisoned daggers at Sasuke. Ebizō is a foot behind Chiyo and similarly interested in Sasuke, peering curiously at him from beneath his long eyebrows.

Sasuke just snaps his fingers and repeats with a blood red glare over one shoulder, " _Chart. Now._ I won’t ask a third time."

The youngest of the medics, a girl with the deep brown skin of the Southeast border tribes, fumbles the chart directly into Sasuke’s waiting hand. He mutters a nearly inaudible "Thanks" before flipping through the pages at rapid speed, eyes moving too fast to track. Baki glances back to Chiyo. She grinds her teeth and looks Sasuke up and down several times before her gaze gets stuck on the Uchiha crest on the back of his jacket. Baki preemptively drags his hand down his face. This will not end well.

"What is the world _coming to,_ " Chiyo spits, fixing Baki with a look that could strip the paint from a wall, "that you’re putting one of our own people’s life in the hands of not only a _Leaf_ ninja, but an _Uchiha?!_ "

Baki sighs through a grimace, "Lady Chiyo, Sasuke is _perfectly qualified–_ "

" _Bah,_ " Chiyo scoffs, "Uchiha are only _qualified_ to do _one thing: Destroy._ "

"Now now, that’s not fair," Ebizō chides, "Don’t you remember Sayano Uchiha, from the war? _Brilliant_ surgeon, that one, had an encyclopedic knowledge of anatomy–"

Chiyo fires back before he’s even finished, "And why do we _know_ that? Because she’d use it to take our men apart on the interrogation table before taking their _minds_ apart with her Sharingan! And we could _never_ put them back together again! A person who can do that, a _clan_ who can do that to people without even _thinking–!_ "

Sasuke barks just above Chiyo’s ranting, "This is a heavy metal-based toxin meant to tear up muscle tissue. It’s ultimate aim is to weaken the cardiac muscle until the heart collapses and stops functioning. In the meantime it poses a significant risk to the rest of his body. If you want Kankuro to come out of this not only alive but still able to _walk_ , I’m going to need you to do as I say and do it _fast._ "

The medics immediately snap to attention; "Y-yes, sir!"

Chiyo, of course, crosses the distance and grabs Sasuke’s shoulder as she shouts over them, "How _dare you–!_ "

Sasuke whirls on his heel to face Chiyo; "How dare _I what?!_ How dare I act quickly and decisively?! How dare I not mince words when there’s a life on the line?! How dare I act like a goddamn _adult?!_ Take your pick, I don’t care! I don’t have time for your petty tribalist _bitching_ and neither does Kankuro! Either get out of my way or I will _make you_ get out of it!"

Chiyo’s jaw clenches and her shoulders tense, but Ebizō quickly comes up behind her; "Listen to the boy, Chiyo. You’re forgetting yourself."

Sasuke doesn’t watch the tension leak from Chiyo like air from a balloon as Ebizō leads her away, turning back to his patient without giving her a second glance. Baki follows her with his eye, watches her shuffle out into the hallway and settle on the bench across from the door. Chiyo keeps her eyes narrow and trained on Sasuke, following him like a fox tracking a lizard across the dunes. Baki takes his cue from her, turning his attention back to Sasuke.

"As I was _saying,_ I’m going to need water and basins. Lots of them. Double time," Sasuke snaps, and the medics hastily comply.

In the brief moment that they’re gone, Temari angles a smirk up at Sasuke and rasps, "Who taught you your bedside manner, doc?"

Sasuke replies, "Women who forced their way to the top of this field thirty-five years ago and invented modern medical ninjutsu as we know it."

Temari coughs out a chuckle; "I see. That explains it."

From the corner of his ear, Baki catches Chiyo muttering, "It can’t be. That old slug queen wouldn’t take an _Uchiha_ as her apprentice. There’s no _way._ "

Ebizō’s affable murmur brings a smirk to Baki’s face; "Times change, Chiyo. Perhaps Tsunade changed with them."

In the space of a few more breaths, the medics return with several basins and gallon-sized canisters of water. Sasuke guides them through setting out one of the basins and filling it with water, placing the rest on standby, then directs them all to surround the bed on either side.

He looks to Temari and Baki; "If you can, I’m gonna need you to help hold him down. He’s not gonna like this part."

A jolt of panic goes down Baki’s spine, but he goes and positions himself down by Kankuro’s legs without a word. Temari pulls herself to her feet and posts up at his shoulders. Sasuke dips a hand in the basin and his Sharingan slowly start to spin. When he takes his hand out, he brings the water with it. It glows from within with blue green chakra, casting strange shadows on the walls of the operating theater. With a deep breath Sasuke presses the water onto Kankuro’s chest… Then _into_ his chest.

Kankuro’s eyes shoot open wide. His voice comes blasting out in a raw and tattered scream, thrashing against and away from Sasuke’s ministrations. Temari, Baki, and the medics all force him down, using all their strength to keep him still. Sasuke grits his teeth, _tomoe_ spinning faster and faster as he moves more and more of the chakra-saturated water into Kankuro’s body through his pores. Sasuke brings his other hand over to the opposite side of Kankuro’s chest and lays it flat over his heart.

He shuts his eyes, takes a deep breath, and pulls the water back _out_ with that hand. Baki’s eye goes wide. The water comes out the other side speckled with blood and peppered with larger splotches of a dark purple liquid, twisting around in the fluid like wriggling insects.

"Is that the poison?" Temari gasps, eyes darting between the water and Kankuro’s face, contorted in pain.

"If it isn’t I have some questions about your brother’s diet," Sasuke mutters, dropping the water into the basin from whence it came, "Another one!"

The process is long, drawn out, and painful for everyone involved. Baki’s arms creak with the effort of pinning Kankuro down, and his screams never abate. He’s _sure_ he’ll be hearing them when he goes to sleep tonight. While Sasuke does the heavy lifting he instructs two of the medics to break off and separate the poison from the water as best they can. They go through more water than Baki can quantify at a glance as Sasuke works his way down Kankuro’s body, forcing the poison out of his major organs and muscle groups. He works with the kind of methodical precision only gained through practice– the Sharingan is helping, certainly, but rote imitation and sharper sight can only get you so far. Sasuke’s making up the difference with the kind of effort that makes sweat roll down your face like raindrops.

It’s easily two hours before Sasuke drops the last of the water in the very last basin, leans back, and sighs, "Okay, _now_ I’ve bought us some time."

The medics break out into big smiles and clap Sasuke on the back as they let out little triumphant cheers. The still-chakra exhausted Temari staggers away, back hitting the wall, and slumps down to the floor with a massive exhale. Baki pats Kankuro’s shin and smiles up at his face. They may not be out of the woods yet, but they’re on their way.

"Now comes the Slightly Less Hard Part," Sasuke continues, straightening up and dusting off his hands, "I’m gonna need a list of the medicinal herbs you have in the village. In the meantime, we should change his bandages, hook him up to an IV drip, and set aside samples of the poison."

The medics hop back to work, and from the edge of his vision Baki can see Chiyo slowly making her way back into the room. Her eyes are still trained on Sasuke, her expression tight and pensive. Sasuke doesn’t seem to be paying her any mind.

Not until she speaks up; "Are you _really_ that old slug queen Tsunade’s student, boy?"

Sasuke doesn’t bother turning his Sharingan off as he meets her gaze with a steady glare; "I am. She sent me here personally. And my _name_ is Sasuke Uchiha. Call me 'boy' again and we _will_ have a problem."

Chiyo arches a brow; "We aren’t having one now?"

Sasuke bares his teeth in a primate grin, pure challenge with none of the mirth; "You haven’t seen anything yet."

* * *

Jungsimji is an old city, one of the oldest in the East. She remembers when the Land of Sound was the Land of Rice Paddies. She remembers when the Land of Rice Paddies was Imperial Province Suiden. She remembers when the Imperial Province Suiden was the Kingdom of Non, and the people of Non dragged stone all the way from the Kingdom of Suối Nóng to build a fortress to defend themselves against the armies of the first emperor. They named her for what she was: The center of their world, the heart of their kingdom, the most pivotal and important point in the whole country.

And when the emperor’s armies arrived she had burned down to the stone. Kings were warriors then, and the king had fought until his last breath in the streets of his capital to defend his home, his people, and his very way of life.

Seven hundred years later, Jungsimji is once again burning. And her daimyō is hiding in a wardrobe.

Daimyō Kazuyuki Saitō has no idea when the chaos _started,_ precisely, only when it reached the ears of his guard. Saitō had been in the middle of breakfast when his personal bodyguard, a shinobi hand-selected by Orochimaru who called herself Mōkin, had been called aside by one of the palace guards. She was a severe woman, loathe to move her face even to blink, but whatever the guard had whispered to her had made her eyebrows leap halfway up her forehead.

She had whirled on her heel and hauled him to his feet, dragging him away; "The city is under siege, my lord. Come. We must move to a more secure part of the palace."

All he had thought to splutter with a mouth still half-full of food was, "Is the whole palace not secure?"

Mōkin’s mouth had simply twitched, distorting one of her scars; "Of course it is, my lord."

At first, he was simply restricted to the _honmaru_. But after another guard, this one with fear in his eyes and sweat on his brow, whispered something to Mōkin she restricted him to the _tenshukaku_. Then to the upper two floors of the _tenshukaku._ Then to the top floor. Then to his quarters. And finally, she had thrown him physically into his wardrobe.

The last thing he saw before she shut the door and barred it were Mōkin’s flinty eyes and her tense jaw as she hissed, "Do not try to leave this wardrobe. If you want to live, stay quiet and still as a corpse."

And here he has sat, following her instructions, for what feels like hours. Saitō occupies his nervous hands by rubbing one of the silk robes he’s sandwiched between, his mind racing. For his guard to be this nervous yet this silent about why, it can only be the peasants. And for it to be the peasants, something must have gone horribly wrong on Orochimaru’s end. That was his part of the bargain. He keeps the peasants in line, keeps the flow of grain and revenue going steadily up so it can trickle down, and Saitō lets him run the Hidden Sound Village however he pleases.

It’s been working for over a decade. Orochimaru may be an unsettling creature of a man but he gets results. It’s thanks to him Saitō has been living in comfort for this long. It’s thanks to him that Saitō is sitting where his simple cousin sat all those years ago, _enjoying_ the privileges his cousin had _endured_. What could have possibly happened to a _Legendary Sannin_ to make him shirk his duties like this? Saitō forces himself to breathe easy. Orochimaru gave him his very best men to defend the palace, defend him, defend his wife and heirs. He will be _fine._ The peasants may be numerous, but they’re nothing compared to ninja, they don’t have the raw power–

There’s a muffled _boom_ in the distance and the sound of crumbling rock. If that was one of the palace’s cannons going off there would be no rock for them to hit, unless they're breaking their own walls now…

Saitō’s breathing spikes and he clutches at the silk robes around him like a security blanket. _Where_ did the _peasants_ get _gunpowder?!_ Nevermind the powder, where did they get _cannons?! Orochimaru_ was supposed to _enforce_ the _law,_ keep gunpowder out of the hands of peasants, because gunpowder is all it takes to turn a rabble into a militia and–

No, no, no, they’re untrained, unskilled, uneducated. They’re simple people. They don’t have formations, battle plans, strategies, _anything_ you need to take a fortress. They’re like the tide, they roll and crash upon the cliffs and they _break._ It takes eons for waves to erode a cliffside. These people don’t have eons. They have days, at _best_. He can outlast them. His guards can outlast them. _Easily._ He just needs to follow Mōkin’s instructions. Stay still and quiet as a corpse if he wants to live, don’t try to leave, and–

The wardrobe doors splinter open. A beast with an orange mane, golden eyes, and skin splotched with gray leers over him, his heaving breaths steaming in the cold night air. With one massive claw, he grabs Saitō by the scruff and throws him into the center of his bedchamber. The first thing he sees is Mōkin’s corpse, blood from three massive gashes across her chest and a hole in her forehead staining his Northern Wind Country rug, her face frozen in a scream. His clock, built by artisans in the capital of the Land of Fire, lies in pieces at her side. It's gilt hands are forever stopped at ten o'clock. The night glows red hot as firelight filters through the shoji. Saitō can hear the sounds of clashing blades, firing artillery, and dying gasps, nowhere near as distant as he'd like.

The orange-haired, man-shaped beast calls over his shoulder, "The coward’s in here!"

The heavy oak doors creak open and two figures step through, a woman and a slip of a girl. The woman has cropped brown hair, a scar on her temple, and her plain _jeogori_ and _baji_ are stained with blood. In one hand she totes a rifle, while the other is hidden behind her back. Saitō tries to get a look at the girl, but all he catches is pink hair before she seems to dissolve into the harsh shadows cast by the fire outside.

The woman takes three steps into the room before bringing her other hand out from behind her back and tossing something dark and round towards him. The object hits the ground, bounces, and rolls to a stop a foot away from Saitō's face. He's face to face with the severed head of Orochimaru.

The woman’s lip lifts in a sneer; "We'll be accepting your surrender now, Daimyō Saitō."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **Footnotes:**  
>  _Honmaru_ – The core region of a Japanese castle, the general living space of the ruler and last line of defense  
>  _Tenshukaku_ – The highest tower and most central keep of a Japanese castle, essentially the honmaru's honmaru  
>  _Jeogori_ – The jacket/shirt portion of traditional Korean costume  
>  _Baji_ – Baggy pants worn in traditional Korean costume
> 
> Yes, the amount of worldbuilding/worldrebuilding/worldretconning I've done for the purposes of this fic _really_ stretches back over seven hundred years into it's history. Because I'm an insane person who thinks Kishimoto does not understand what parts of his world are interesting and what parts aren't.


	6. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> He lets his voice drop into something softer and says, "Remember, we’re a _team_ , Naruto. We win and lose together."
> 
> Naruto just mutters into his palm, so low Kakashi’s sure he’s not supposed to be hearing it, "Then why are we always apart?"
> 
> Kakashi doesn’t have an answer for that.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY, HOLY SHIT THIS CHAPTER IS LONG

**V.** Like a salmon always knows exactly how and when to go back to the stream they were born in, Ino can find her way to the Nara and Akimichi Compounds like a magnet is pulling her there. It’s an instinct she’s had for so long she might as well have been born with it. That’s what makes it so hard to fight.

Ino power walks from street lamp to street lamp, her blonde pixie cut nearly white in their cheap sodium glow, as she meanders vaguely in the direction of the Nara Compound. Ino dips down alleyways, goes up backstreets, sends a clone to jump around the rooftops, all in the service of making herself a pain in the ass to tail. Not that she’s ever _caught_ anyone tailing her. It’s ten in the evening, and in the Leaf Village that means there’s no one around but stray cats and crickets. Besides, this is a _village,_ everyone knows everyone, no one should even _want_ to tail her. But because she’s a ninja, she knows better than that.

Her long, spiraling walk takes her down a quiet cobblestone street hemmed in by trees. The space between the street lamps grows with every step, like the street is being stretched from both sides. It’s her least favorite part of this walk. But the tiny wisps of fear blow away on the wind when she catches the sound of heavy footsteps and something crunching coming up the road.

Ino turns down a side street. The sounds grow louder and louder before falling into perfect step beside her. Ino smiles up at Choji through her bangs. He smiles back down at her, mouth full, hand in a bag of chips.

"Careful eating on the job, Choji," Ino chuckles, "Our _shadow_ might follow your breadcrumb trail."

Choji shakes his head and replies around a bite, "Nah, no chance. It’s an ancient Akimichi Clan Secret Technique: Crumbless Eating Jutsu."

Ino gives his shoulder a shove that doesn’t move him an inch; "Knowing your clan, that’s probably not even a joke."

Ino and Choji walk right past the gate to the Yamanaka Clan compound, and after a few minutes more they come to a stop in front of the Nara Compound. The gate towers over them both, a heavy wooden edifice built without iron nails, handles, or hinges. It sits between walls of heavy stone, piled high and dense. The way their fathers always told it, the Yamanaka, Akimichi, and Nara clans settled in the central valley before even the Senju. That gate is older than the forest behind it.

Typical Naras. They were too lazy to move.

Ino looks up at Choji through her lashes and whispers, "Did you bring The Stuff?"

"Of course I did, I’m a _professional,_ " Choji replies, fishing a colorful plastic packet out of his armor.

He tosses it up to the top of the gate, where it stops and hangs in the air. Then the darkness melts away. Crouched atop the gate is a shinobi in his late thirties, his dark hair in a loose ponytail and his darker eyes ringed with green eyeliner. He scratches at his goatee with one hand and holds the packet up to the light with the other. After a moment’s inspection, he tears it open, digs out a small sugar candy, and pops it into his mouth.

Around the candy, he remarks, "Smart move, bribing the gate guard instead of sneaking under the hole in the fence. You’re growing up _so_ fast."

Ino rolls her eyes; "It’s good to see you, too, Uncle Ensui."

Ensui winks at her before dropping down behind the gate. There’s a moment’s pause before it yawns open, revealing Ensui and the winding path through the trees. Ensui steps to one side with a courtly bow before the darkness reaches out and swallows him again. Choji and Ino exchange fond snickers before they set off down the path.

The canopy completely blocks out the moon, leaving the path to the Nara Clan Head’s home the darkest one in the village. The narrow dirt trail is punctuated every fifteen feet by matching pairs of stone lanterns, their flames burning small and dim. Deep within the trees Ino can just barely make out the silhouette of deer, standing eerily still until suddenly sprinting out of sight. It isn’t long before the path opens up onto the Nara manor. The Hyūga have a far more opulent mansion and the Inuzuka certainly have a _larger_ one, but as Ino carefully avoids the squeaky boards on the stairs and catches sight of the notches in a post where Shikaku would track how tall she, Shikamaru, and Choji were getting, she’s sure that few other clan manors feel more like a home.

Ino knocks on the door, and it isn’t long before Yoshino Nara answers. For just a moment, as Yoshino pushes some hair out of her eyes and sighs through her nose, Ino is struck by the dark circles beneath her eyes and the harsh slump of her shoulders. But then her eyes alight on the two of them. The smile that spreads across Yoshino's face makes her look and Ino feel years younger.

Ino beams and opens her arms for a hug; "Hi, Auntie Yoshino!"

Choji bows from the shoulders; "Good evening, Missus Nara."

Yoshino pulls them both in, one arm going all the way around Ino and the other barely clearing Choji’s right shoulder; "It’s good to see you two, though I wish Shikamaru would stop calling you in so _late._ If he keeps this up much longer I swear the three of you are going to become nocturnal."

Ino pulls back from the embrace; "Speaking of Shikamaru…"

Yoshino’s smile drops; "Right, right… He’s in The Hole again."

Ino and Choji cringe in rhyme. They say their pleasantries to Yoshino, slip off their shoes, and make their way deeper into the house. Ino notices the traces of Shikaku’s absence as they cut through the front rooms– A plate at the kitchen table covered over by a bowl, a half-finished crocheted afghan on the sofa, the lamp burning by the door. Ino wonders if he called to tell Yoshino not to wait up for him. She wonders if Yoshino’s waiting up anyway.

Scratch that. She doesn’t need to wonder. She knows Yoshino would never pass up an opportunity to playfully rake Shikaku across the coals for coming home late, and Shikaku would never miss an opportunity to hear her do it.

Choji and Ino creep deeper into the house, past Shikaku’s study, past the master bedroom, past Shikamaru’s room, and finally stopping at a perfectly nondescript door. Ino knocks the first half of "shave and a haircut" on the direct center, sending chakra out through her knuckles and into the door with every knock. After _exactly_ ten seconds, there’s an answering "two bits" knock. The hall lights up purple as a seal scrawls itself across the door, then goes out just as quickly. Ino spares Choji a long-suffering wince before heading inside.

They squeeze into what _used to be_ a servants’ quarters back when the Naras had servants. What Shikamaru has turned it _into_ is… well, _The Hole._ Shikamaru stands in the center of a web made from equal parts string and paper. The walls are coated with photographs, reports, maps, graphs, receipts, and so many miscellaneous scraps that Ino can’t see the actual wood anymore. Pins don’t just hold up the collected evidence, but act as points of connection for an intricate weave of many-colored strings.

Shikamaru has a hand to his chin and is staring intently at the tableau in front of him. Choji shuffles over to stand on Shikamaru’s left side. Ino shuts the door, resets the seal, and settles on Shikamaru’s right.

She arches a brow as she wonders, "Remind me how you convinced your mom to let you use her crochet yarn for this again?"

Shikamaru replies in a deadpan, "With my irresistible wit and charm. What’ve you got for me?"

Ino crosses her arms over her chest; "Not as much as you’re hoping for. I popped in and out of the Barrier Team’s headquarters as often as I could, but no unsanctioned entry or exits were reported or detected. I tried to get them to tell me if there were less hawks coming into the village than normal, but that got me stuck in a lecture about how if they paid _that close_ attention to _every single bird_ that flew in and out of Leaf airspace they’d lose their minds, so we can say pretty much for sure they’re not gonna be much help."

Shikamaru taps a finger against his lips in a slow rhythm; "What about the Intel Division?"

"They showed off just how good they are at putting on a brave face," Ino scoffs, "I snooped enough to see that, just like you said, reports from abroad were scarcer than normal. But nobody was freaking out about it. They were way more preoccupied with Gaara’s kidnapping. I did as much surface thought skimming as I could get away with, there was a _lot_ of 'It’s fine sometimes agents run into trouble, it’s fine Tanaka told me that dead days like this happen, it’s fine it’s fine it’s fine’."

Ino shrugs, huffing hard enough to ruffle her bangs; "Granted, these were rank and file chūnin I was scanning. I’m not stupid enough to think I can sneak in and out of Ibiki’s mind, or my _dad’s._ Just looking at them, they didn’t even seem like they noticed."

Shikamaru simply nods and asks, "What about the wall, Choji?"

Choji frowns, running a hand through his hair, and answers, "Second verse, same as the first. They were clocking way fewer messenger hawks than normal flying in, but if that worried anyone nobody was letting it show. I did get a few chūnin talking about it, and they mostly shrugged it off with 'shit happens, the reports will get here when they get here'. I got into it with a _couple_ jōnin, but they shut down real quick when I brushed close to anything I didn’t have the proper security clearance to know about."

"Yeah, same here," Ino chimes in, "Honestly, Shikamaru, it might just _be_ a dead day."

Shikamaru’s voice comes in quick and sharp; "Not a chance. Thanks to you guys, now I know for _sure_ there’s something going on."

Ino arches a brow; "Really?"

"Really. Think about what you guys kept saying– Reports were _scarcer._ There were _less_ hawks coming in," Shikamaru explains, slowly starting to pace a short loop, "Not 'none'. Not a _complete_ blackout. That tells us that we _aren’t_ dealing with something earthshaking that _could_ take out dozens of hawks or dozens of _ninja_ all at once. We’re dealing with humans. Humans with an upper limit to their manpower. Humans that are fallible enough to miss a good ten to twenty percent of the communications they’re trying to block, but smart enough to _know_ that."

Ino cocks her head to one side; "Where are you getting that second part from?"

"Once again, think about what you kept saying," Shikamaru continues, his pacing speeding up, "People are worried. But not enough to think they’re allowed to make a scene about it. Not enough to get the higher ups to sweat. Not enough to prompt immediate, decisive, _visible_ action. And remember, of all the communications to let though, they made sure the one about Gaara’s kidnapping made it here. Adding that and foreign reports slowing to a trickle together, you buy yourself anywhere from a few days to a week to sneak around in the dead zone you’ve created and do… _whatever it is_ you’re doing."

Choji squints just past Shikamaru at the tangled mess on the walls; "That’s the thing, isn’t it? What could they be _doing_ that requires complete radio silence from our agents in the field?"

Shikamaru clicks his tongue against his teeth, slowing his pace; "That _is_ indeed the thing. It’s still too early to guess any specifics… But I have a heading."

Ino is leaning in now, eyes running along the strings like a spider; "What are you thinking?"

Shikamaru turns and taps two fingers against the papers on the wall; "We need to get a good look at where all the reports that make it through are coming from. Because I will bet you if we add them all up, we’ll find _one_ _spot_ where it _is_ a total, complete blackout. Blocking almost everything is a smokescreen. They’re trying to block something specific happening some _where_ specific."

Choji scratches at his scalp, his frown turning into a wince; "Shikamaru… We _definitely_ don’t have the clearance for _that._ And if our shadow’s really as embedded in the village as you think, there’s no way we can pull strings with our parents or Tsunade to _get_ clearance without them noticing."

Shikamaru is quiet for a long moment before he mutters, "No… no we can’t… But we all know someone who can."

Ino’s eyes go wide; "Wait a minute, are you thinking–?"

"Asuma’s a jōnin, a Sarutobi from the leading line, and a former member of the Twelve Guardian Ninja," Shikamaru cuts in, "He has more connections in higher places than _any_ of us. I didn’t want to get more people involved in this than I had to, but…"

Choji finishes the sentence; "Are you sure you have to?"

Shikamaru doesn’t say anything. He leans closer to the wall, until his forearm is flat against it. He drums his fingers on a report as he stares at the pages in front of him hard enough to set them on fire.

Finally, he sighs, "I’ll sleep on it. But if there’s another way to get the information we need, I can’t see it."

Ino chews on her lower lip as she stares at Shikamaru’s back. He looks like he could fall right into this web of evidence, this pit of leads and dead ends, and never come out.

She keeps her voice soft; "Shikamaru… This is risky enough for _us,_ but Kurenai is _pregnant…_ "

Shikamaru twitches a shoulder in an attempt at a shrug; "If anyone’s ready to handle those risks, it’s Asuma."

Ino throws Choji a worried glance and he tosses back one of his own. Ino wags her head toward Shikamaru’s right side. Choji shuts his eyes, then does the same towards Shikamaru’s left. They don’t need to say it out loud. Now and always, they know exactly where they stand.

* * *

The deep river gorge lights up bright orange, bringing the figures of the two Akatsuki agents and their captive into harsh relief. One stands tall and lanky, weight on one foot and a hand on the opposite hip. The other sits low and misshapen, with some sort of strange appendage lashing back and forth in the shallow river. A man-sized bird that does not breathe hovers at their side, a limp but twitching body curled in its tail feathers.

And just as quickly as it came to life, the light dies. In the moment of darkness as his eye readjusts, Kakashi can hear rock scraping against rock. When the spots clear, the Akatsuki agents and their bird stroll through a _torii_ gate and beneath a gargantuan boulder. The moment they’re through, the boulder slides back into place. A square of paper on the boulder’s face flashes once, then the night is as silent and dark as always.

From his perch on the cliffs at the top of the gorge, Kakashi sets his binoculars on the ground, and thinks. He and Naruto are lying flat against the ground within the underbrush. It’s _unlikely_ that either agent saw them, but not impossible. He spares a glance to Naruto, just to his left. To his credit, Naruto isn’t fidgeting. But he _is_ clenching his fists hard enough to break skin. Kakashi brings the binoculars back up and adjusts the magnification. Sure enough, there’s a seal on the boulder. Kakashi starts wracking his brain to scrape together everything Minato taught him about fuinjutsu, an effort that’s difficult enough when Naruto’s nervous energy isn’t throwing him off.

Naruto throws him even further off as he whispers through a mouth full of his own lip, "They’re _right in front of us,_ Kakashi-sensei, we could–!"

"No, we couldn’t. Look," Kakashi passes Naruto the binoculars as he explains, "As if the door being a gigantic boulder wasn’t enough, there’s a seal on it. There’s no telling what it will do if we approach."

Naruto stares at the boulder for a long moment, the tight set of his shoulders loosening at the same time as his brow is furrowing. The tip of his tongue pokes out from the corner of his mouth for a moment before he starts muttering something under his breath. Kakashi can’t help arching a brow as he watches Naruto think out loud.

After a moment, Naruto suddenly says, "Oh, I know what it does."

The only thing Kakashi can think to ask is, "You _do?_ "

"Yeah, like," Naruto brings the binoculars down and scratches at his head, "I’m still not great at actually _doing_ fuinjutsu 'cause seals are real intricate and complicated and sometimes I just can’t concentrate on getting them all the way down, but Jiraiya still drilled me enough that I, like, _get_ what parts make them up and stuff and–"

Kakashi cuts Naruto off in his best Sensei Voice, "Okay, Naruto, just slow down. Explain to me how the seal works."

"Right, right, gotcha," Naruto scoots closer, until he and Kakashi’s sides are touching, before holding the binoculars up so Kakashi is looking through the left lens and Naruto is looking through the right, "See the two kanji at the top there? Reading them like normal they’d usually mean 'tree' or 'wood', but with fuinjutsu it’s not that… _literal,_ I guess? They’re more like, like the person who made the seal was _thinking_ about a forest of trees sprouting up, like things growing. And the big kanji at the bottom–"

Kakashi squints at the kanji in question, muttering almost to himself, "Is that even a real kanji?"

Kakashi feels Naruto’s shrug as it jostles him to one side; "Well I mean no but like, it’s _close_ to two different kanji, one that usually means 'important' and one that means 'end'. But like I said, it’s not that _literal,_ it’s more trying to say that this seal is the center of something, the lynchpin, basically. And you can’t pay too much attention to the actual characters because what matters more is how many strokes make them up–"

Kakashi can only deadpan, "I’m suddenly remembering why my sensei’s lessons on fuinjutsu didn’t really take."

Naruto lets the binoculars droop so he can blink owlishly at Kakashi and wonder, "Your sensei did fuinjutsu?"

For the first time in a long time, Kakashi finds himself _smiling_ as he talks about Minato; "He didn’t just _do_ fuinjutsu, he was an _expert_ on it. He came up with techniques people _still_ haven’t been able to replicate."

Naruto’s eyes go wide enough to catch a few of the stars; "Whoa…"

Kakashi’s throat is suddenly full of thorns. _Why_ does he have to look _so much_ like them?

Kakashi forces his gaze back down to the gorge; "So what were you saying about the strokes in the kanji?"

"Oh, right! Right, so, like," Naruto pulls the binoculars back up with one hand and makes vague, evocative gestures with the other, "The two 'wood' kanji are made up of four strokes each. That plus the 'lynchpin' kanji means that this seal has multiple tags connecting to it, and the amount of strokes equals the amount of tags. The lynchpin kanji confirms it, because it’s made of _five_ strokes. Four outlying tags, one center tag, that’s five tags in all. That’s also confirmed by the border–"

Kakashi’s brow hops up; "The _border_ is important?"

Naruto lets the binoculars sag once again so Kakashi can see him rolling his eyes; " _Yeah,_ that’s why I’m not _great_ at fuinjutsu, _everything_ you put on the page is important. You can’t _improvise,_ not _really,_ one wrong stroke and the whole thing blows up."

Kakashi’s smile is warm and small, but he hopes Naruto can still hear it; "Yeah, that’s not your style at all. So _how_ is the border important?"

Once again, Naruto has to reel himself back on to his original train of thought; "Right, yeah, the border is rectangular and boxes in the seal. That means this seal is supposed to block off a rectangular area, and the four tags are placed at four points to mark the edges. And the lynchpin tag is in the center, so that means we’re in the sealed zone right now."

Only now is Kakashi keeping pace as he taps a finger against his chin and adds, "So this seal isn’t designed as a _hard_ barrier but a _soft_ one."

Naruto nods hard enough to make his whole body bounce a half-inch off the ground; "Yeah! Hard barriers require a lot more chakra and more active work, so they can’t cover super wide areas. Soft barriers can still be nasty though. Can do things like reflect damage you try to do to anything in the 'forbidden' area back on you and shit, it can be _rough, believe_ it."

Kakashi huffs out a sigh, "And let me guess, hunting down and tearing off the tags one at a time wouldn’t work, would it?"

Naruto shakes his head with a wince; "Nope. You’d probably have to take them all off at the same time. And you’d be in for a shitty surprise when you did."

Kakashi narrows his eyes, the wheels in his head turning quicker and quicker; "Don’t tell me… That second 'wood' character means something’s going to sprout up when you remove one of the four corner tags."

"Not just something," Naruto replies, "Look, the characters are _identical._ Almost like they used a stamp. The tags’ll make some kind of clone when they’re torn off. Probably of the person who tore them off, that’d be easier to do over a long distance."

Kakashi considers that for a heartbeat, then turns to smirk slyly behind his mask at Naruto; "Clones, hm?"

Naruto stares at Kakashi, brow furrowed, for exactly ten seconds before he lights up their hiding spot with a huge grin; "Oh! Yeah! _Yeah!_ This is gonna be a piece of cake, I make four clones, send 'em off with the dogs, find the tags, then tear 'em all off at the same time! My clones will fight _their_ clones and we’ll head in!"

Naruto starts to get up and Kakashi reaches around to put a hand between his shoulder blades and push him back down to Earth; "One problem with that plan: There’s still a big rock in our way."

Naruto’s mouth screws up in a frown; "You couldn’t break through it?"

"Not quickly. You?"

Naruto just grimaces. That’s all the answer he needs to give.

"That’s what I thought," Kakashi continues, "We can’t discount the possibility that the _instant_ we break the seal the Akatsuki will be alerted. They might have a way out of there, they might not. Either way, that’s another chance we can’t take. We need to be ready to bust our way in within moments of breaking the seal. And that _means…_ "

Naruto groans, letting his face fall into the dirt; "We have to wait for Sasuke."

"Exactly."

Naruto props himself up on his elbows, opens up his jacket, and unzips an interior pocket on the chest. Two white eyestalks come popping out before Katsuyu pokes the rest of her 'head' out, taking a broad look around. Kakashi does his best to suppress a shudder.

"You doing okay in there, Li’l Slug?"

Katsuyu inclines her head in the best attempt at a bow a slug can probably muster; "I am doing fine, Naruto, you need not worry about me. Would you like me to relay all the intelligence you’ve just gathered to Sasuke?"

"Yeah, please, and tell him to hurry."

"Of course."

As Katsuyu withdraws, Kakashi remarks, "In the meantime, you and I get to have ourselves an old fashioned stakeout."

Naruto just perches his chin on one hand, eyes half-open, as he grumbles, "Yeah, yeah, fine."

Kakashi swallows a sigh. And there goes all his energy, like air out of a balloon. He _really_ should be taking notes on these conversations, that way he can track _exactly_ what it is he’s doing that kills them every time.

He lets his voice drop into something softer and says, "Remember, we’re a _team,_ Naruto. We win and lose together."

Naruto just mutters into his palm, so low Kakashi’s sure he’s not supposed to be hearing it, "Then why are we always apart?"

Kakashi doesn’t have an answer for that.

* * *

"That is where things stand with Naruto and Kakashi," Katsuyu concludes, "Do you wish to send a reply?"

The tiny slug sits among a mess of dried herbs, beakers, burners, scrolls, pipettes, and dozens more pieces of alchemical equipment Sasuke has forgotten the names for. He considers Katsuyu’s question as he grinds scurvy grass in a mortar and pestle. The greenhouse around him is abuzz with activity as the resident medics race in and out, taking clippings from the plants and delivering samples from the outlying greenhouses. It’s the kind of chaotic rhythm Sasuke’s become used to over the past two years, he’s sure he wouldn’t be able to think as clearly without it.

"Give them the gist of the situation here, then tell them I’m working on an antidote for Kankuro," Sasuke replies, "Much as I _want_ to turn right around and head out once I’m done–"

"That would not be wise, Sasuke," Katsuyu cuts in, "You have been awake for seventeen hours, that you can still function as well as you are is a stroke of luck. You shouldn’t push it."

Sasuke shoots the little slug a lopsided smirk; "Don’t worry, I know the human body well enough to know I won’t have much choice in the matter. Just tell them not to expect another update from me before sunrise."

One of the residents calls from a pond of dawn lotus, "Should one of us go clean up the on-call room for you?"

Sasuke jabs the pestle at them and shoots back, "Make an intern do it, I’m not done with you yet."

Sasuke’s mind runs on two tracks, one considering his next move and the other assembling the antidote. He confers with the other medics, mixes together ingredients, tests and re-tests and re-re-tests, works straight through a shift change, all while plotting out the route from here to the Akatsuki hideout. His gut twists and clenches with every step he takes closer to synthesizing an antidote and every obstacle he can imagine the Akatsuki throwing into his path. Sasuke works with a red-eyed shadow looming over him, watching his every move.

After four hours of trial and error, Sasuke uses an eyedropper to place a sample of the poison in the center of a testing scroll. He fills a pipette with the same amount of antidote, then drops it onto the scroll. The antidote absorbs the poison and disappears in a puff of steam.

Sasuke grins to himself and hisses, "Take _that,_ Akatsuki."

Sasuke separates the antidote into three vials, each a full dosage. The residents don’t let Sasuke clean up after himself, all but pushing him out the door to go cure Kankuro. It’s a quick and quiet jog back to Kankuro’s room as the hospital has fully transitioned into the graveyard shift, and when he knocks on the door, a young intern is the one to answer.

Her dark eyes light up at the sight of the vials; "Are those–?"

Sasuke nods; "Yep. Is he awake?"

The intern opens the door a bit wider and waves him in; "No, but please, come in. I’ll have him up shortly."

Sasuke steps in behind her and closes the door on his heels. He surveys the room in a wide arc. Baki is the first person he sees, asleep sitting up in a chair next to the door. His shoulders are square and his arms crossed tight over his chest, like he could leap up and into battle at a moment’s notice. Temari has compressed herself as much as she can to fit on Kankuro’s hospital bed with him, molded to the side opposite his IV drip. Kankuro is already looking less pale, but the hand holding Temari’s has ghost-white knuckles.

The sight of them makes Sasuke’s heartbeat stutter, but it doesn’t last long as the intern gently coaxes Kankuro awake. He blearily looks around before his eyes settle on Sasuke.

Sasuke forces a smirk and holds up one of the vials; "Room service."

Kankuro tries to laugh and mostly coughs. Sasuke pulls up a chair at Kankuro’s bedside, helping him sit up without disturbing Temari. With the extra help of the intern and a few pillows, they manage it, even if they also drag Temari halfway up with him.

Sasuke holds the vial out to Kankuro; "So, you have two options. I can brew this into tea to make it taste _slightly_ less terrible, or you can just drink it like a shot."

Kankuro takes a few deep breaths before shrugging his free shoulder; "In my experience, two in the morning is a _great_ time to do shots."

Sasuke uncorks the vial; "I’ll save my professional medical opinion on that for later."

He hands the vial to Kankuro, who knocks it back with practiced ease. He lets out a harsh wheeze as he comes back down, thumping a hand against his chest.

Kankuro winces over at Sasuke; "Oh she is _smooth,_ isn’t she?"

"She’ll get the job done," Sasuke chuckles, "You’re also gonna need to take some vitamins and supplements over the next few days, since chelators tend not to care _what_ metal they get rid of and you’ll need to replenish the beneficial ones while the antidote makes it’s way through your system. I'll write you up a prescription in the morning."

Kankuro cracks a faded grin; "Once again, Sasuke, you’re a lifesaver."

"That’s literally the job description," Sasuke snorts.

Kankuro’s grin slowly falls and, after a moment of silence, he asks, "So… What’s the word on Gaara? We made any progress?"

"Shockingly, yeah, we have."

Sasuke explains the situation to Kankuro, who hangs on every word with an intense look on his face. It’s all the more intense without his facepaint and puppeteer uniform. One could think it's a mask, meant to hide his face from the world. But Sasuke, the part of Sasuke that jumps when he sees his own face in the mirror because it's the same as seeing a ghost, knows that’s not who it’s for.

Once Sasuke’s finished giving him the rundown, Kankuro snickers, "And here I thought I was being smart for once, getting a piece of their cloak."

Sasuke shakes his head, insisting, "That _is_ smart, Kankuro. You had no idea we were coming. Hell, even if you thought Leaf would send backup you had no idea what any backup would _do._ Most people would’ve just run straight here and let you guys call all the shots without taking any initiative."

Kankuro gives him an odd look, arching a brow and cocking his head to one side; "And you aren’t _like_ 'most people', are you?"

Sasuke sits up a little straighter and holds his head a little higher; "Never have been."

Kankuro rolls his eyes, scoffing, "Oh I can see why Chiyo _hated_ you."

Sasuke bristles at the sound of her name; "Trust me, I’ve known the woman for six hours and the feeling is already mutual."

Kankuro rasps out a far better laugh than his previous attempts; "Yeah, she’s got that effect on people."

Sasuke’s mouth twist into a scowl and he spits, "Why do you even keep her _around?_ If she’d had her way, she would’ve just bashed her head against a problem she couldn’t solve on her own until she ran out of time and you _died_ rather than let someone more qualified take over, _all_ because I’m from another village."

Kankuro lets his eyes slide shut and he sighs, "Remember, man, she’s _old._ She made it through _all three_ wars. She’s older than the entire concept of hidden villages, more than any of us _she_ knows just how temporary and meaningless alliances can be. Chiyo lost her son, daughter-in-law, and _grandson_ to war. I hate to be _that guy_ who goes 'she’s not _really_ that bad you just caught her on a bad day' _,_ but you probably _did_ catch her on a bad day. This whole thing is as personal to her as it is to me and Temari."

Sasuke’s brow furrows; "How do you mean?"

Kankuro stares down at his hand as he flexes his fingers, his lips pursed; "Well… Short version? That grandson she lost? He’s the one I fought. Long version…"

The story Kankuro spins is an old one. A little boy loses his parents to The War, is tossed in after them because the village is desperate, and breaks into a dozen monstrous pieces while his grandmother looks on, helpless to stop him. Every hidden village has hundreds of these stories. That’s how someone as deranged as Sasori can find a partner equally as deranged to work alongside. Still, it’s a credit to Kankuro’s skill as a storyteller that this old, predictable tale still has Sasuke leaning closer with every twist and turn.

Kankuro finishes with, "Underneath it all, she’s one of the best puppeteers and saboteurs this village has ever turned out. I can’t say I don’t respect her, I wouldn’t be where I am without her paving the way ahead of me. Her wisdom and experience has been invaluable in the past–"

"But this _isn’t_ the past," Sasuke cuts in, "Eventually new problems are gonna surface that the _wisdom of the past_ has no experience with and no answer for– No, screw _eventually,_ that _literally happened today._ "

Kankuro frowns at Sasuke and counters, " _But_ old problems have a habit of not really going away, just lying dormant. You know the saying, 'those who don’t learn from history' and all that. Sasuke, I _get it,_ trust me I do. I don’t know how Gaara can sit in the council chambers with all the other backwards pieces of shit still squatting in a seat they stole twenty years ago, but…"

He shakes his head with a sigh, " _Somehow_ he turns the lumps of lead they give him for advice into gold, so I gotta believe there’s _some_ value in keeping them around, if only so we know what _not_ to do."

Sasuke rubs at his eyes, the weight of all the time he’s spent awake landing on his shoulders all at once; "Well, we'll Gaara back and he'll tell us how he does it himself."

Kankuro’s eyes flicker up and down Sasuke, examining him critically; "Yeah, you’re not gonna do much 'rescuing' looking like _that._ How long have you been awake?"

Sasuke can feel the tips of his ears heating up; "Uhm… Twenty-one hours, I think?"

Kankuro immediately points to the door; "Out. Now. Go sleep."

Sasuke wags his chin towards Temari; "You mean I can’t sleep in here, too?"

"Obviously there’s no room left," Kankuro snorts, "Besides, visiting hours are over, family only."

Sasuke shoves himself up out of his chair; "Fine, fine. See you in the morning."

" _Go._ "

Sasuke turns toward the door, waving over his shoulder to Kankuro. Once out, Sasuke’s able to find the on-call room with a bit of asking around and a lot more aimless wandering. Tucked in the far corner of the second floor, the earthen walls, sparse furnishings, and dim light makes it feel more like a cave. Sasuke indulges himself, using the Sharingan for half a second to help find which of the four bunks crammed into the room are empty. Sasuke drags his carcass to the very back of the room and up the bunk bed ladder, folding himself into the bed.

A dozen thoughts drift through his mind as he stares at the ceiling. In these moments between sleep and waking, the fact that Sasuke’s wearing his shoes in bed, the guilt he feels over getting to sleep in a bed while Naruto and Kakashi are scouting in enemy territory, the ever-present ache of Sakura’s absence, and the thrill of this _finally_ being his chance to take Itachi out all seem equally important.

But the last thing Sasuke thinks of before it all goes dark is Kankuro and Temari, each running themselves to exhaustion and past it, all the way to the edge of death, all to rescue their brother. And even though Gaara isn’t far from death himself, Sasuke can’t help but taste the horribly bitter tang of jealousy on the back of his tongue.

* * *

Sakura wakes up in the bed of the Sound daimyō’s wife.

It’s an ornate, four-poster affair, with a proper canopy and sheer drapery to enclose it while still letting the light through. The sheets are pure silk, the pillows goose down, and the mattress is large enough that Sakura could invite Jūgo, Suigetsu, Zhàdàn, and Kabuto to join her and still have room to toss and turn. It’s everything Sakura had ever dreamed of when playing Princess with Ino as a little girl. For a moment she lies motionless, soaking in the pale sunlight and sinking deeper into the mattress.

She shuts her eyes and heaves a sigh. Pulling herself up and out of the mattress is like extracting herself from a pit of custard. She parts the drapes and swings her legs over the side of the bed, her feet making contact with a blood and soot stained carpet.

The feudal lady’s chambers are the least trashed part of the palace, but that isn’t saying much. The carpet’s elaborate design is hidden beneath a coating of filth. There’s a fist-sized hole punched through the shoji, the echo of the cannonball buried in the opposite wall. The wardrobe is open and empty, the beautiful garments too elaborate for one person to ever put on by themselves all strewn about the floor.

Sakura finds her jaw clenching as she stares at the clothes. Those pieces must have taken _months,_ maybe even _years,_ of backbreaking work to create. Someone had to embroider all those designs by hand, by sunlight and electric light and candlelight. Fabric merchants carried those silks over hills and valleys, through storms and across ravines, just to get them to the artisans that would make them into something beautiful for someone who’d barely appreciate it because to _her_ they barely cost a thing.

Sakura shoves herself to her feet and starts gathering the garments in her arms. They weigh as much as she does– actually, considering how little she’s eating these days, they probably weigh _more._ But she hauls them back to the wardrobe anyway. One by one, she folds them back up and puts them back in their place. She can’t _know_ what _their place_ was, but she can guess. It takes her fifteen minutes, fifteen minutes where all that matters to her is folding clothes, looking around the wardrobe for space, and filling it. It’s rote and it’s mindless, but Sakura can’t stop until she’s done. Once the very last _haori_ has been put away, Sakura slams the wardrobe shut.

She turns to where the garments were. There are three stains on the floor. Slightly red, but mostly brown.

Sakura hasn’t seen the daimyō’s wife or his two sons since she entered the palace.

Sakura shuts her eyes and hisses, "I need to get out of this goddamn country."

Sakura gets dressed, gears up, throws her pack over one shoulder, and stomps out of the feudal lady’s chambers. She takes a long, winding walk down the _tenshukaku_ through the morning fog. From this vantage point she can see the extent of the collateral damage. All the previous night’s fires have been put out, but the rubble is scattered out across gardens and courtyards, some particularly large chunks sitting in the center of deep dents in building roofs. The black markings where mortars and artillery shells hit are scattered across the palace grounds like blackheads on a face. Sakura can track Suigetsu’s path through the grounds by which sections are flooded.

Separating the _tenshukaku_ from the great hall is what _was_ a very lovely garden. Now, it looks plucked out of No Man’s Land. The trees look like empty coatracks and artillery shells sit undetonated in pits of upturned dirt. Arched bridges would’ve connected a network of small islands in a manmade pond to create a meandering path from the great hall to the keep, but the wooden bridges lie in pieces in the water and the stone bridges are severely cracked. Sakura is in the midst of trying to plot the safest course across the pond when she catches a flash of orange hair on one of the islands closest to the great hall.

Jūgo looks quite large on the little island. He sits with his back to Sakura, huddled into a ball at the water’s edge. Sakura takes a broad look at the island’s bridges. Both are standing, but neither look particularly stable. She channels chakra into the soles of her feet and walks directly across the water. She deliberately goes against all her training in how to walk without making a sound. Sneaking up on Jūgo rarely goes well. He doesn’t react to the sound of her footsteps, not even as they reach the island, crunch across the grass, and Sakura settles down on his left.

Sakura examines him from the corner of her eye, and the first thing she notices is the stump of his right arm, bandaged inexpertly but tightly. Jūgo wouldn’t have let Kabuto do it. It must have been one of the revolutionaries, one of the few brave enough to actually get close to Jūgo. The second thing she notices is that he’s still in his prisoner’s uniform. He doesn’t have any shoes. The fabric is thin and cheap. She can see goosebumps rising on his arms and neck.

Jūgo draws her out of her observations; "Sakura?"

Sakura blinks herself back into the moment; "Yeah?"

Jūgo stares out over the garden as he asks, "What were the chances that there were bird nests in these trees?"

Sakura’s gut twists, but she answers, "I… I don’t know, it’s possible there were a couple."

"Gophers could probably dig up and into the garden, too," Jūgo murmurs, voice and gaze growing distant, "There were probably koi in these ponds. Things lived here. They didn’t care that the daimyō made it, that every plant here was bought and paid for. The plants didn’t care, they just grew where their roots could take hold. And now… now it’s all gone."

Sakura purses her lips, her eyes dropping to her knees as she draws them up toward her chest; "Well… It’s like you said, the daimyō made it. It can be made again. They can find the same landscaper, his old plans, and make it exactly the same as it was."

Jūgo nods, just once; "Yeah. But the birds won’t come back."

Sakura doesn’t have anything to say to that. At least, she doesn’t _think_ she does until she catches a ripple on the pond’s surface. She turns to get a better look and sees the ripple moving steadily across the water’s surface, not the echoes of a pebble, but maybe the wake of a single koi. When it’s five feet away Sakura _almost_ nudges Jūgo’s shoulder to get his attention. Before she can, the ripple moves _up_.

The pondwater molds itself into a damp Suigetsu. Sakura stifles a sigh. Suigetsu shoots her a grin and a two-fingered salute. He sits down with a _splush_ on Sakura’s left, his heels still in the water.

He pushes some wet hair out his face as he asks, "What are you sad sacks moping about first thing in the morning?"

Sakura glances back to the ruined garden; "Collateral damage, I guess."

Suigetsu rolls his eyes; "Pffft, come _on,_ we stuck it to the man! That means sticking it to all the man’s stuff, too! It makes a statement: 'Fuck you and fuck all this stuff you used the people’s money to buy'! Don’t act like you guys don’t get that– Jūgo, you wrecked the guy’s room! Sakura, you _took his wife’s bed!_ "

Sakura slits her eyes in a glare; "I needed somewhere to _sleep–_ "

Suigetsu jabs his chin towards her backpack; "You got a bedroll in that thing, right? Coulda unrolled that and slept on the floor."

Sakura chokes on her stammering attempt at a rebuttal.

Suigetsu claps her on the shoulder, leaving a wet handprint on her sleeve; "Look, I get it, feeling sorry for yourselves is your favorite pastime. But come _on._ We _won._ We killed Orochimaru and unseated the daimyō within the same _day_. A messed up garden and some broken furniture is nothing compared to that."

Sakura wants to ask if it’s nothing compared to the three stains on the carpet. Her teeth are clenched too tightly for it to sneak through the cracks.

Sakura’s ears perk up at the sound of soft swearing coming from behind her. All three of them turn toward it. Making his way across the bridge connecting the island to the great hall is Zhàdàn. As if trying to negotiate an unstable bridge with one leg wasn’t enough, balanced in the crook of his one arm are four ornate-yet-chipped bowls full of _something_ steaming. Sakura is on her feet and halfway to the bridge, but Zhàdàn shoots her a pointed look that freezes her in her tracks.

Zhàdàn takes each step with exceptional care, avoiding the cracked and crumbling pieces of the stone. It takes him a good three minutes longer than it would Sakura, but he creeps the rest of the way over the bridge and arrives unharmed on the other side. Now on more solid ground, he lopes across the island, maneuvering one of the bowls into Sakura’s hands as he passes her. Sakura follows on his heels, sheepishly tucking herself back in between Jūgo and Suigetsu.

"So _this_ is where you guys are," Zhàdàn remarks, rolling two of the bowls into Suigetsu and Jūgo’s hands, "Here, some of the rebels found the kitchens and made breakfast for everyone. When the three of you didn’t show up, I got wheedled into feeding you."

Sakura looks down at the bowl. It’s filled with a basic rice porridge. The only 'garnish' is the handle of the spoon poking out. Sakura takes the spoon with one hand and runs through a quick set of three one-handed signs with the other. A green film of chakra settles over the porridge. After a few moments, it dissolves harmlessly into the air, meaning there’s a ninety nine percent chance it isn’t poisoned. Sakura still sniffs her first spoonful before popping it in her mouth.

It tastes like nothing. Sakura takes a few more bites, and it still tastes like nothing. But it’s filling and it’s warm, and that’s enough on mornings like this.

Suigetsu wrinkles his nose at dish; "We raid and capture a whole noble palace and we’re _still_ eating rice porridge?"

Zhàdàn rolls his eyes; "If _you_ can think of something quicker to make and more filling to feed what’s basically a small army, I’m all ears, Soggy."

Sakura almost chokes on her second bite and Suigetsu’s eyes go wide as he splutters, " _Soggy?! That’s_ my nickname?!"

Zhàdàn shrugs a shoulder, barely hiding a smirk behind the bowl; "Couldn’t think of a better one."

Suigetsu fires back, "I can think of a _million_ better ones! Sharky! Sharp-tooth! Water Boy! Sword Guy!"

Zhàdàn almost snorts his porridge; " _Sword guy?_ "

Suigetsu throws his hands in the air; "It’s better than _Soggy!_ "

Sakura glances over to Jūgo. He hasn’t touched his porridge yet, instead staring at it with a furrowed brow as his eyes flicker between his bowl, his spoon, and the stump of his right arm. He picks his spoon up, not to bring any porridge to his mouth, but seemingly gauging the distance between the bowl in his lap and his mouth. For someone as tall as Jūgo, it’s a long, treacherous way up. His mouth screws up in a frown.

Sakura touches his shoulder; "Jūgo, do you need–?"

Zhàdàn calls over her, "You don’t have to use the spoon, Big Guy," he waves the bowl in his hand, "Just drink the stuff like soup."

Jūgo blinks over at him; "Oh… Okay."

Jūgo wordlessly hands his spoon to Sakura. Sakura holds the two spoons and, for a moment, very seriously considers eating with two spoons at once. She shakes the stupid idea out of her head.

Suigetsu cranes his neck around Sakura to stare at Jūgo’s missing arm; "Can’t you, like, grow that back or something?"

Jūgo glares at Suigetsu from the corner of his eye; "I could, if I transform and consume something living. But the only living things here are the three of you."

Suigetsu’s lip twists in a sneer; "Is that a _challenge–_ "

Zhàdàn lets his head drop back and groans, "I _swear_ to _God_ if you two start fighting I’m taking my leg off and shooting you both. Take it back like twenty notches, _please_."

"Like your mortar could really hurt us," Suigetsu scoffs.

The banter continues around her, hanging in the air and filling it like the fog. Sakura smiles a complicated little smile into her breakfast. As she’s taking her last few bites she chances a glance over her shoulder, just in time to catch Kabuto stepping out onto the great hall's _engawa._ With his hair loose and his glasses sitting a tad too low on his nose, he looks like he just woke up. He catches her gaze and wordlessly taps a phantom wristwatch. Sakura purses her lips and quickly finishes her porridge.

Sakura stands up, dusts herself off, and says, "I’m going to go talk to San-Ha. Zhàdàn, I’d like you there with me, if you’re alright with that. Suigetsu, Jūgo, you should get ready to leave."

Suigetsu lets out a low whistle; "You’re really _that_ homesick, huh?"

Sakura cocks her head to one side; "Aren’t you?"

Suigetsu doubles over, cackling, "Now I _know_ you’ve never been to Mist!"

Zhàdàn doesn’t say anything, just holding his hand out for Sakura to grab and help him up. She stays ahead of him as they walk back to the the bridge, earth chakra pulsing out from her feet and mending the stone as she crosses it. Zhàdàn is free to make his way as carelessly as he likes. When the two of them reach the _engawa_ , Kabuto falls smoothly in step with Sakura.

Kabuto says, "She’s in the daimyō’s audience chamber."

Sakura lets her eyes flicker up to his; "Do I want to know where the daimyō is?"

Sakura doesn’t think Kabuto is capable of smiling without smirking anymore; "Depending on what gate you leave through, you might find out for yourself."

The three of them cut through the dining hall, where the rebels are doling out ladlefuls of rice porridge from three iron pots as wide as Sakura is tall. The hall is bustling and conversation fills it up to the ceiling, but Sakura’s eyes see right through the catharsis of victory to it’s cracked clay feet. While the rebels may be laughing and grinning, it’s only at each other. They’re all clustered on the right side of the hall while the Sound ninja and former prisoners are lurking on the left. The ninja sit in tight groups, no one showing the civilians their backs. The rebels don’t stare quite as openly, but no one is eating without an arquebus slung over their shoulder.

As they weave their way through the crowd, Sakura can feel eyes sticking to her. Everyone, ninja and civilian alike, keeps stealing glances at her. Some look frightened, some look awed, but everyone looks wary. Sakura fights her instincts. Dropping a genjutsu over herself and turning invisible in the middle of a huge crowd like this would be counterproductive.

They head out of the grand dining hall, down a corridor, and arrive at the doors to the audience chamber. A guard sits on either side, a young woman with mossy green hair and a young man with a scar cutting through the corner of his mouth. Each are holding rifles, the young man with his across his lap and the girl cleaning the barrel of hers. Both of them freeze at the sight of Sakura, their eyes going wide and their mouths snapping shut. Sakura steps past them and opens the door without knocking.

The daimyō’s audience chamber is hemmed in on all sides by golden screens, painted with scenes of water buffalo plowing rice fields, cranes in flight, _kami_ watching from the clouds, and ninja doing battle. The daimyō’s throne sits on a raised platform, putting it six inches above the tatami floor. San-Ha has foregone the throne for the floor. The older woman scratches at the scar on her temple as she reads over one sheaf of paper among many that surround her in piles. From what Sakura can see at a glance, at least half of them are financial ledgers and records.

At the sound of the door opening, San-Ha heaves a sigh, "What is it _now–_ " she looks up and directly into Sakura’s eyes. Her shoulders tighten and she immediately sits up straight.

"Oh. Sakura."

Sakura forces a smile; "Good morning. You look busy, I’ll keep this short."

San-Ha’s eyes narrow; "Okay…"

Sakura slips off her sandals, pads into the room, and settles down on her knees in front of San-Ha; "I know you want the Land of Sound–"

San-Ha’s jaw clenches and she spits, "Land of _Rice Paddies._ We’re not keeping that name _your_ teacher forced on us."

Sakura’s reflexes are too fast for her to keep from flinching; "Right. You want the Land of _Rice Paddies_ to be a country that doesn’t bow to daimyō or ninja. That’s why the daimyō and his family had to," Sakura swallows hard, her throat aching with the motion, " _disappear._ So it’d probably be for the best if I did, too. I plan on leaving with Suigetsu, Jūgo, and Zhàdàn today."

Sakura expected a sigh of relief. Instead, San-Ha leans back, her eyes going wide. She slowly sets down the ledger and runs a hand through her short brown hair.

"Really? That’s… Hm."

Sakura’s brow furrows; "Do you not _want_ me to leave?"

A knot forms between San-Ha’s brows as she replies, "It’s complicated. This whole damn _thing_ is _always_ more complicated than it seems. Even if we are a country that doesn’t _bow_ to ninja, we still _have_ ninja in our borders. Not just the ones who were born here, but the ones Orochimaru captured, too. We’ll need a way to safely send the prisoners home, _and_ we need a complete overhaul of the Shinobi system to keep the native ninja from overpowering our new government. I had hoped you could help with at least _part_ of that, but…"

Sakura freezes.

The _easy_ answer here is to tell San-Ha the truth: ' _Well I’m an undercover agent from the Leaf and have been the entire time, so now that my mission that directly involved hijacking your cause for my own purposes that really only benefit you as a coincidence I gotta go_ '. That’s a one-way ticket to a pair of bullets flying through the door and into Sakura’s back.

She _could_ stay, tell Danzō and Tsunade that it was a necessary part of her mission to make sure that the new era she helped usher in would actually last, but Sakura never wanted to usher in a new era. She only helped oust the daimyō because that was San-Ha’s price. She only wanted Orochimaru dead. And now that she thinks about it, she isn’t sure what she _thought_ would replace him. A Village Hidden in the Rice Paddies, _maybe,_ but not… _whatever it is_ that San-Ha and her people are going to create. Ousting the daimyō and replacing the feudal system was already more change than Sakura could really conceive of. Changing the shinobi system feels like it’s beyond possibility.

Just as the silence is starting to border on uncomfortably long, Kabuto sits down on Sakura’s left and says, "Your ideas are admirable– _Incredibly_ admirable, I’d add. But Sakura isn’t the right person to help you achieve them. Keeping her around in a leadership capacity will just give the _legend_ of her accomplishments more fuel. I imagine you’ve already heard people gossiping about how she killed her master, a _legendary sannin_ , 'singlehandedly'."

" _And_ how she _singlehandedly_ organized the Sound Village’s revolt, don’t forget that part of it," San-Ha snorts.

"But I _didn’t– You two_ are more responsible for that than I am," Sakura cuts in.

Zhàdàn comments from the wall he’s leaning against, "Don’t forget whose gunpowder actually brought the walls down."

Kabuto adjusts his glasses; "Exactly. But Sakura just being one critical piece in a larger puzzle doesn’t make for as good a story, does it? The more time she spends here, the more opportunity those _dissatisfied_ with the revolution’s reforms have to use her as a puppet or symbol for a counter-revolution."

Sakura perks up, an idea forming like a lighting strike; "And besides, Orochimaru has supply caches, hideouts, and laboratories squirreled away all around the country. There are tons even _I_ don’t know about, but Kabuto does. Kabuto knows everything about Orochimaru’s network, his prisoners, his experiments– He’d be a way better fit to help you dismantle and reform things."

Kabuto’s eyes go wide, and when he speaks it’s slowly, haltingly, like he’s not sure he’s allowed to, "I… Well," he dredges up a wry smirk, "I suppose I also cut a less inspiring figure. Nobody’s going to try installing _me_ as the Second Otokage."

San-Ha turns her hard stare squarely onto Kabuto; "And how can I trust you?"

"The same way you trusted Sakura," Kabuto replies, "We’ll make it a contract, each of us agreeing to hold up our end of the bargain for mutual benefit."

San-Ha brings her hand back up to her chin; "What do you want out of this?"

Kabuto waves the question away; "We can discuss that later. I don’t think Sakura’s finished."

Sakura nods, quicker this time, and adds, "No, I’m not. I didn’t want to leave you guys high and dry, otherwise I could’ve just snuck out under cover of genjutsu. So," she looks over her shoulder to Zhàdàn, "You have powder warehouses in the Land of S– Rice Paddies, right?"

Zhàdàn lets his eyes slide shut as he sighs, "Where’s this going, Pinky?"

"I was thinking you could cut a deal with San-Ha," Sakura answers, "agreeing to sell some of those warehouses and supply lines to the new government. With Orochimaru and the Hidden Sound Village gone, they’re going to have to broker new deals for black powder on their own, and–"

Zhàdàn pushes off the wall with his foot, grumbling, "And even the countries that recognize the new Land of Rice Paddies are gonna wage the Trade War from Hell on them and make it damn near impossible for them to _make_ those deals, I get it. _Fine,_ " he ambles over and sits down, as cross-legged as he can get, on Sakura’s right, "Go see if any of the _revolutionaries_ out there are also lawyers, Pinky, I want this contract _airtight._ "

Sakura, in fact, _can’t_ find a lawyer. All she _does_ find is that a large proportion of the revolutionaries are illiterate. For want of a lawyer, San-Ha and Zhàdàn both agree that Kabuto will do in a pinch. The process of drafting up a contract, then getting the proper payment out of the daimyō’s vault and all the way up to the audience chamber, is a long and not particularly interesting one. Sakura takes the opportunity to go find and collect Suigetsu and Jūgo, who 'packed' by stealing essentials from the palace and throwing them in burlap sacks.

On their way back to the audience chamber, Sakura and Suigetsu debate how safe it is for him to just shove Kusanagi through one of his belt loops and call it a day. Sakura arrives just in time to see the moss-haired girl handing over several hefty stacks of ryō to Zhàdàn. Once he’s examined the bills in the light and stowed them in his own pack (far too close to an arquebus and a cask of gunpowder for Sakura's comfort), Zhàdàn and San-Ha stand and bow to seal the deal.

"Pleasure doing business with you," San-Ha says, then nods to Sakura, "Good luck on your travels, wherever they take you."

Kabuto gets to his feet; "I’ll see her to the gate. When I’m back, San-Ha, we’ll draft up a contract of our own."

Sakura bows to San-Ha and says, "Thank you. I hope you can make your dream come true," before leading the way out of the _honmaru_ and through the palace grounds.

As they walk, Suigetsu glares at Kabuto and snaps, "We can find our own way out, you know."

Kabuto’s smirk is back in place; "Unlike _some_ people here, I remember my manners."

Sakura rubs her temples and hisses through her teeth, "Can we not do this? Can we just _try_ to end things on a civil note? Once we’re through that gate _none_ of us will _ever_ have to speak to Kabuto again."

Suigetsu crosses his arms over his chest, eyes still fixed on Kabuto; "Yeah, try being experimented on by him for three years then tell me to ' _be civil_ ' again."

It’s a good half hour before the five of them make it out of the palace and into Jungsimji proper. The neighborhood hugging the palace walls is the wealthiest of them all, with ornate townhouses painted in rich reds, golds, and greens. Revolutionaries are out clearing the streets of debris, corpses, and blood. Those elite lucky and quick enough to get inside before the siege hit are nowhere to be seen. But as they move downhill and the houses get cheaper, Sakura catches sight of a few people peeking their heads out.

Sakura finds herself wondering out loud, "How do you think they’ll cope? You know, with the change?"

Zhàdàn replies, "The rich aren’t gonna take it well. As for the poor and the middling sorts, well, I’ll bet you they’ve been talking for _years_ about how _someone_ ought to do _something_ about the daimyō. Just depends on if they were ready for someone to _actually_ do something."

Suigetsu holds a hand out with his palm up; "Alright, place your bets people. Ten ryō says this place is annexed into the Land of Waterfalls by Summer."

Jūgo frowns down at him; "Can’t you just be happy for them?"

"Oh I’m happy as Hell for them," Suigetsu drawls, "But happiness is temporary. The tide always comes back in sooner or later."

Kabuto cuts in, his voice carrying an odd, hard note; "Well, so long as I’m here, it’s going to be later."

For a moment, everyone just stares at him. Kabuto doesn’t seem to notice. His eyes are focused on the horizon as he walks with his back straight and his shoulders square.

Sakura asks, "Do you… _actually_ believe in them? In a new Shinobi system?"

"I was never satisfied with how the Leaf Village ran things," Kabuto explains, "I joined Orochimaru because he offered something different. A _new_ kind of Hidden Village. But it was still a shadow government that acted more like yakuza than an army, sucking the blood from their country like leeches. So, now we have a blank slate. Maybe now we have a chance to _actually_ change things."

Sakura stares at Kabuto’s face in profile. She knows she can’t trust anything he says. His performance during the chūnin exams was proof of how capable an actor he can be. But it's an odd lie to tell, especially since he's never seemed to care enough about her to lie in the past.

Still, Sakura stays cautious, and simply says, "Well… Good luck, then."

Suigetsu cranes his neck around her to spit at Kabuto, "I’ll believe it when I see it."

They make it to Jungsimji’s southern gate, still blown wide open. Sakura’s eyes climb the stone base, fly up past the first level of the wooden pagoda, and stop at the very top. Mounted on pikes are two severed heads. One is nearly bald, with the hair around the sides and back of the head pulled into a knot. The other has long black hair that drifts in the weak wind.

Sakura can’t feel her hands and feet.

She opens her mouth, and the only thing she can force out is, "… Well."

Kabuto nods; "Well, indeed."

Sakura turns to Kabuto and bows from the waist; "Goodbye, Kabuto."

Kabuto bows from the shoulders; "Goodbye, Sakura."

Suigetsu, Jūgo, Zhàdàn, and Sakura walk through the gate. Once they’re far enough away to actually see their faces, the three men turn and look over their shoulders at the heads mounted on the gate. Suigetsu even flips them the bird. Sakura keeps her eyes on the road.

Zhàdàn fishes his pipe out of his pack, and as he’s lighting it he says, "I’ve got a question for you, Pinky."

Sakura blinks up at him; "What is it?"

Zhàdàn takes a long drag from his pipe, then angles his eyes down to meet Sakura’s gaze; "What do you think of all this, really?"

Sakura lets her eyes drift back to the road as she thinks. When she hitched herself to the wagon of the revolution, it was never supposed to be complex. It was like in the Land of Waves– they help good people get out from under the thumb of someone who’s cruelly exploiting them, then they leave and the Land of Sound slots back into it’s place in the status quo. But that's exactly what they didn't want. It wasn't Orochimaru and Daimyō Saito that put them in the gutter, it was _every_ kage, _every_ daimyō, the whole fuedal and shinobi system.

Sakura was born in a Hidden Village. All her life, she knew that Hidden Villages were good. A Hidden Village means daimyō don’t have to draft farmers to fight. It means that the soldiers are an organized trade with the bargaining power to say no if a daimyō is requesting they do something unjust. It means Ninja clans can live in comfort instead of constantly moving from battlefield to battlefield and losing children. Yes, the Hidden Sound Village acted as the daimyō’s thugs for hire, but…

But Orochimaru is _Orochimaru,_ he was _unequivocally_ evil. He didn’t care about anyone but himself ( _he_ didn’t _care about her he didn’t he didn’t he didn’t_ ) and subverted the system. His puppet daimyō only cared about riches and comfort. Tsunade isn’t like that. The Fire daimyō… Well, he can be a bit harsh with taxes and tariffs, but Tsunade wouldn’t answer to some simpering manchild like the man they found cowering in his own wardrobe. If the right person is kage, if the right person is daimyō, they can look out for the needs of everyone…

But Sakura’s relatives from the South call the ninja _Xīxuèguǐ,_ vampires, bloodsuckers that always have enough to eat while those without chakra starve. Sakura still made more money at twelve than her own mother. The only friends she had who understood living in a too-small house with a roof that leaked and weeks where you made your leftovers stretch well beyond their means were Naruto and Tenten, Naruto because the village had left him to fend for himself, and Tenten… because she was _also_ civilian-born.

Sakura is a clanless child of civilians. But she’s also a ninja. And though there was always friction, Sakura never thought that was a contradiction. But San-Ha does. And Sakura’s not sure if she can.

Sakura wants to let all of that pour free. But… Suigetsu, Jūgo, and Zhàdàn… She trusts them with her life. She can’t trust them with this.

So, all she says is, "I don’t know."

Zhàdàn studies her for a moment, then sighs through a plume of smoke, "Yeah… Yeah, you’re just a kid, after all. You’ll figure it out."

Sakura, frantically grappling for a change of subject, looks to Suigetsu; "You know, the Leaf Village is pretty much exactly halfway between here and the Land of Waves. I’ll have to report in once I’m back."

Suigetsu immediately wilts, groaning, "Can’t we just go around?"

Zhàdàn jabs his pipe at Suigetsu, cutting in, "That ain’t fair to me, you know. I’m gone once Sakura gets me in the door with the village, I don’t wanna take a detour."

Suigetsu fires back, "And _I’m_ gone once I get Zabuza’s sword! I don’t wanna laze around the village while Sakura does paperwork and hangs out with her friends!"

Sakura’s mouth turns rebelliously up at the corners; "The Leaf Village is a nice place, you might enjoy lazing around there."

Suigetsu visibly cringes; " _Fuck_ no. Shit’s full of soft boy genin who can barely throw a shuriken and pencil pusher chūnin and you can’t see the ocean, I’d rather go back in the tube."

Sakura jolts back, exclaiming, "You’ve never even _been_ to the Leaf Village, you have no idea what it’s like!"

Suigetsu rolls his eyes; "I know enough about _you_ to know it turns out insufferable know-it-alls who wear stupid dresses into battle."

Sakura’s jaw drops; " _Hey!_ My _mom_ made this dress!"

"And _that_ just proves my point–"

Zhàdàn and Jūgo exchange long-suffering glances over Suigetsu and Sakura’s heads as the four of them bicker off towards the horizon.

* * *

Kabuto stands beneath Jungsimji’s southern gate, watching Sakura’s team grow smaller and smaller. The further away they get, the quicker Kabuto’s face falls into something blank and remote. He reaches beneath the high collar of his shirt and futzes with his radio. The earpiece hidden by his long, loose hair squawks to life.

He whispers, "This is Silver. The asset is heading South with three accomplices. Her destination is the Hidden Leaf Village. Do you copy? Over."

A blank voice crackles in over the radio, "This is Ink. We copy. Will intercept the asset when she crosses the border. Blackout is in full effect. Over and out."

Kabuto closes the channel, turns on his heel, and starts the long, uphill walk back to the palace. He keeps a careful eye out for the eyes of others. In those brief moments where every single civilian’s eyes are pointed away, Kabuto borrows a trick from Sakura’s book and drapes himself in a genjutsu. The civilians don’t look back to him. Why would they? To them, he’s now as uninteresting as the dirt beneath their feet. Kabuto walks for a few meters more before ducking into an alleyway. Once he’s halfway down it, there’s the sound of feet hitting the ground. A member of Sound’s ANBU melts into view, her birdlike mask regarding him coolly.

Kabuto asks, "Where are we?"

"ANBU have Jungsimji surrounded," Raven replies, "On your signal, we’ll start tightening the circle."

Kabuto nods; "Consider this my signal. Remember, this is a stealth op. I want _full_ Ghost protocol. We’re ninja. Let’s damn well act like it for once."

She nods, smooth and silent; "Understood."

Quickly as she appeared, Raven is gone again. Kabuto veers back onto the main road. From the corner of his eye, he sees things the revolutionaries don’t catch.

A woman is clearing some rubble from a porch. The man helping her leaves to take a break while her back is turned, only to poke his head out of a nearby alley and ask her for help. Of course she goes to help him, disappearing into the alley to never reappear.

A child sobs in the middle of the street, covered in equal parts mud and blood. A teenage girl runs up to them, dries their tears, and picks them up to see if they can’t go find their parents. The child loops their arms around the girl’s neck and slips a senbon out of their sleeve in the same motion.

All along the street, people disappear. It’s a quiet thing. There’s no fanfare, no struggle. People are simply there one moment, and gone the next. Kabuto can’t help a smile. It’s like a symphony, everyone playing their parts in perfect synch.

Kabuto lets the genjutsu degrade as he climbs up into the rich neighborhoods closest to the palace. A young man falls in step with him. His clothes are plain and dirty, but his hair is too clean.

Kabuto murmurs from the corner of his mouth, "Shift change on kitchen duty should be in five hours. You’ll find what you need in a nattō container at the back of the fridge with the sell by date February 28th 1002."

The young man smirks; "Clever. I _wish_ nattō was odorless and tasteless."

"Don’t we all. Remember, don’t just dump it into the pot. Stagger it. Make it seem random."

The young man waves him off; "I’ve got it, I’ve got it. This isn’t my first saboteur gig, you know."

Kabuto’s hand shoots out, grabbing his wrist mid-wave; "No mistakes. If you fuck up, we _all_ go down."

The young man swallows, wrenching his wrist out of Kabuto’s grip; "Right."

The young man runs on ahead. Kabuto resets the genjutsu as he crosses the threshold of the palace grounds. He strolls all the way through the _sannomaru,_ crosses into the _ninomaru,_ and instead of taking a left to keep going on towards the palace, he takes a right. Kabuto ducks down a blind alley designed to throw off invading armies, walking all the way down to the end. His contact melts into view on Kabuto’s right, in mid-crawl down the compound wall. This ANBU agent’s mask has sharp, hornlike spikes above the eyes and where the nose ought to be.

Kabuto asks, "ETA on the outlying forces?"

Chameleon drops to the ground in a crouch; "Two hours for the furthest, a half hour for the closest. Forces stationed in No Man’s Land should be here by nightfall."

Kabuto nods; "Tell them to go in quiet when they get here. How about the whisper campaign?"

Chameleon’s voice is muffled, but smug; "The Sound ninja are feeling sufficiently emasculated and the prisoners are fearing for their lives."

Kabuto’s mouth curls in a smirk; "Perfect."

Chameleon cocks their head to the side; "All due respect ’n all that, Boss, but why go to all this trouble? These people are as skinny and untrained as they were last night. One Fireball Jutsu could end this all in an instant."

Kabuto’s smirk immediately drops, and he snaps, "Last night they had nothing to lose. Now, they have something to protect. That, more than anything, makes them dangerous," one of his hands drifts to his stomach, ghosting over the whirling, scrawling scars of a Chidori and Rasengan, "I know that from experience. _Don’t_ underestimate them again."

Chameleon nods stiffly; "Yes, sir."

They melt out of view. With no more pending appointments, Kabuto takes the rest of the stroll to the audience chamber at a leisurely pace. When Kabuto arrives at the door, the guards tense up, but don’t quite _freeze_ like they did when Sakura appeared. He can’t help the twitch that brings to his eye. The moss-haired girl clutches her rifle tight to her chest, fixing him with a poisonous glare, but he doesn’t pay her any mind. Kabuto strolls up to the door, pausing before knocking as he catches the sound of multiple voices coming from behind it. He knocks anyway.

San-Ha’s voice rises over the others, calling, "Come in."

Kabuto does as he’s bade, finding San-Ha surrounded by a good five other civilians all bickering over each other. Kabuto doesn’t take the time to catalogue individual features, but a survey tells him they’re all around middle age. He faintly recognizes a few of them from Tadami, though of course none of them were in the tavern that fateful night. A pot of tea steams in the center of the rabble, but the cups are all empty. The rabble take notice of him all at once, falling silent.

An older, balding man purses his lips, then whispers to San-Ha, "We’ll leave you two alone."

San-Ha immediately pinches the bridge of her nose; "No, that’s not– If you keep–"

The rabble stand and file out, paying San-Ha no heed as she urges them to stay. Kabuto watches them go, brows arched.

He waits until they’ve shut the door behind themselves to ask, "And they are?"

San-Ha rubs at her temples, griping, "I was _hoping_ they would be my co-rulers until we set up a proper representative assembly, but it seems like they’d rather be my advisors while I become Basically Another Daimyō."

Kabuto sits down across from San-Ha, cross-legged; "Representative assembly?"

"Yes, I– Legends say that before the Sage, when people lived in tribes, everyone in the tribe would vote on what the tribe should do," San-Ha explains, "I hear some of the tribes in the Land of Wind still do that. The Land of Rice Paddies isn’t very big, but it’s still not so small that we can feasibly have _everyone_ in the country debate on matters of policy, but maybe we could have provinces elect representatives who do the debating and drafting of laws, then they’d vote on whether or not to put them into practice?"

Kabuto holds her gaze for a few moments before remarking, "That… sounds _incredibly_ inefficient."

San-Ha lets her shoulders slump, already too tired to keep up the front of the strong leader this early in the day; "I _know,_ but I just– People should have a say in how their government treats them, right? We can’t just _trust_ that because the people who’re in charge _are_ in charge that makes them good and just people who will always do the right thing! That’s how we got into this mess in the first place!"

Kabuto stays diplomatic; "Well, _my_ recommendation would be to concentrate on strengthening your hold on the country. Your existence poses a threat to the rest of the world. You’ll need to defend yourself from those who want to take advantage of this adjustment period. You need to get your defenses in order, and to seem like you’re not changing _that_ much. They’re afraid of you giving their people _ideas._ At least _pretending_ that you’re still going to be strong and centralized with a hidden village for now–"

San-Ha cuts him off with a voice as hard as iron; "You’re saying that like 'giving their people ideas' isn’t what I _want._ "

Kabuto doesn’t let her see him freeze; "Really."

San-Ha nods, the fire lighting back up in her eyes; "Definitely. They need to know that they don’t _have_ to live like we did. Orochimaru was no different from the Raikage, the Tsuchikage, even the Hokage. They’re _all_ parasites controlling their daimyō from his shadow, Orochimaru was just the most blatant. The people need to have a beacon to lead them to a brighter future. They need _hope._ "

Kabuto smiles. Because San-Ha just took her last chance and threw it away.

Kabuto takes the teapot and pours out two cups. A lot of ninja work is less magic, more sleight of hand. And with a very simple trick, Kabuto is able to sprinkle something odorless and tasteless into San-Ha’s cup before handing it to her. The warm cup in her hands and the scent of matcha makes her uncoil again, just a little bit. She uncoils all the way when Kabuto takes a sip of his tea. Even after surviving Tadami, a traumatic experience is no substitute for shinobi training.

As she takes her first sip, Kabuto says, "So, about our contract…"

* * *

"That’s how things stand," Sasuke concludes, "Naruto and Kakashi can’t move until I’m nearby, but according to Katsuyu they’re a good day, day and a half journey out from here. You guys know better than I do that we don’t have that kind of time."

The sun has risen over the Sand Village, and Sasuke, Temari, Baki, and Kankuro are all talking strategy around Kankuro’s hospital bed. Temari’s hair is loose as she sips water filled with crushed up electrolyte tabs. Kankuro is still hooked up to an IV. Baki is nursing a mug of coffee strong enough to wake the dead and Sasuke has his pack in his lap to hide his restless leg as he itches for the road. Katsuyu is perched on Sasuke’s shoulder, though he can feel her slowly making the journey into his hair.

Kankuro looks to Katsuyu; "About how accurate is your sense of where your other pieces are?"

"Very. When my proximity decreases my precision increases, but it is always accurate," Katsuyu replies.

Baki rolls the coffee mug between his hands; "This wouldn’t even be a discussion if Temari was up to another flight, but–"

"If it comes to it, I can be," Temari cuts in, grip tightening on her water.

Sasuke shakes his head; "I’m not going to ask that of you. If you ran out of chakra or your control faltered while we were in midair, the mission’s over."

Kankuro arches a brow; "What, Uchihas don’t always land on their feet?"

Sasuke smirks and replies, "Not since we lost our tails, I’m afraid."

"Come on, we have to think of _something,_ " Baki snaps, "Every moment we sit here deliberating is a moment that our allies are risking their lives!"

Kankuro offers a loose shrug; "I mean, what more can we really think of? Our options are kinda limited, here. It’s not like–"

Temari suddenly sits up straight, wide-eyed gaze snapping to the window. Everyone follows her eyes. A structure, built high into the Western cliffs, is _swarming_ with gigantic birds. Dozens more, bigger than even albatrosses, circle the structure as they come down to land. Temari is up and out of her seat in an instant, sprinting for the door.

Sasuke looks between Temari and Kankuro; "Where’s she going?"

"Over there," Kankuro snorts, wagging his head toward the window, "That’s the Aerie. Looks like the Falconer Corps are back. I’m chained to this IV drip, so go, get a move on. Don’t let her leave you in the dust."

Sasuke chases after her, Baki a few steps behind. Temari moves quickly for someone still recovering from chakra exhaustion, navigating her way through the winding village streets and up onto the carved paths through the cliffs. Sasuke has to divert chakra to the soles of his feet to keep his footing on the narrow and steep trails, but Temari runs up them like a mountain goat.

They eventually open up onto a small mesa with a stone-carved pavilion in it’s center. Birds of prey fill the sky like rainclouds. Hawks, falcons, and eagles of all shapes and sizes nest on ridges cut into the surrounding cliff faces, the rock below stained a distinctive white. The air is filled with the sound of flapping wings and high, sharp bird calls. Sasuke, for a moment, can only gawk. He’s never seen this many birds in one place. He shakes himself back to the present and keeps following Temari.

She leads them to the pavilion, where two dozen ninja are settled on stone benches and tables tending to their gear and gathering meat scraps to toss to the birds. The falconers bear the standard Sand head coverings, as well as thick leather vambraces and khol around their eyes. Each stand to attention when Temari passes, all except for a man with yellow eye makeup resembling the markings of a Peregrine Falcon who comes in and wraps her in a bear hug. Temari returns it twice as fiercely.

After a long moment, Temari looses herself from the hug and smiles up at the man; "Welcome home, Arsalan."

He inclines his head to her in a low bow; "It’s good to see you again, Commander. I wish it was under better circumstances," his eyes alight on Baki and in an instant his solemnity gives way to a wide, warm grin, "And _you_ are _always_ a sight for sore eyes, my dear Baki."

Baki, to Sasuke’s surprise, flushes from forehead to neck and hastily looks away. The other falconers titter on the edges of the pavilion like children watching their parents flirt.

Temari gives Arsalan’s shoulder a shove; "Circumstances being what they are, we don’t have time for the usual song and dance. We have the Kazekage’s location."

Arsalan is all business again, ushering them all to a large table in the center of the pavilion. Spread across it is a map centered on the Land of Wind, with lands marked past it’s Western frontier that Sasuke’s never even heard of before.

Arsalan gestures to a box of pins set off to the side of the map; "Mark it."

Temari nods to Sasuke, who takes Katsuyu off his shoulder and places her near the Land of Rivers. Slow enough to build suspense, Katsuyu crawls in a circle, marking off an area a few miles Northeast of the Hidden Valley Village with a trail of slime. Sasuke takes a pin and buries it in the dead center of the circle.

Arsalan leans over the map, clicking his tongue against his teeth; "Well, at least it’s not far. I’ll talk to the chūnin, see what birds are in flying shape."

Sasuke turns to Temari; "Does he mean–?"

Temari nods, a warm smile resting on her face; "The birds that nest here are big, certainly, but the summons are large enough to carry two passengers on their backs and two captives in their claws. One can take you straight there."

Baki frowns, chiming in, "They could get you there in an hour if you go alone, but sending you by yourself is a risk we shouldn’t take at this stage."

Sasuke shakes his head; "I won’t be alone when I get there."

"But you will be along the way," Baki counters, "We can’t know what defenses and surveillance measures the Akatsuki have around their base. Considering the agent Gaara fought had a bird of his own, it’d be stupid to think they’re not monitoring the air, too."

Temari arches a brow at Sasuke; "Let me guess, _you_ wouldn’t clear Kankuro for active duty, would you?"

Sasuke shakes his head; "Not a chance."

Temari crosses her arms over her chest with a huff, "If the Falconer Corps are back already, the Nightjars and Fan Corps can’t be far behind. They’ll need me here to coordinate and give orders."

"This village has tons of talented shinobi, I’m sure we’ll find someone–"

A sand-weathered voice from the pavilion’s edge cuts Sasuke off; "If a Sand Shinobi is needed, then I’m the one to go!"

Sasuke shuts his eyes, not bothering to look while everyone else turns toward the source. He can just _picture_ Chiyo’s smug expression.

He grinds out, " _No._ "

Chiyo’s footsteps come tapping over, stopping at his side; "I seem to remember overhearing that _you’re_ not in command of this mission, young man. Troop deployment isn’t up to you."

Sasuke turns to glare at her; "And _I_ seem to remember overhearing that _you’re_ retired," he glances over to Baki, "You can’t seriously send _her_ out on a mission this important!"

Despite being six inches shorter than him, Chiyo finds a way to look down her nose at Sasuke; "Indeed, I _am_ retired, that means I can do whatever I want."

Sasuke balls his hands into fists, snarling, "And that means _I_ don’t have to work with you–"

"Sasuke," a resigned Baki cuts in, "Lady Chiyo _is_ one of the foremost experts on poisons and puppet techniques. No one’s better equipped to face Sasori than her."

Sasuke whirls around to face him, wide-eyed; "Are you _kidding me?_ You’re actually _considering this?!_ "

"He’s talking _sense_ is what he’s doing," Chiyo sneers, "Tsunade may have taught you a few parlor tricks, but you’re still a Leaf Ninja. You’re simply not trained to counter Sand techniques. Besides, I haven’t looked in on my _sweet little_ grandson in _ages,_ isn’t it within my rights to pay him a little _visit?_ "

Sasuke snaps over his shoulder at her, " _Hell_ no, that just means you’re too cl–!"

Temari’s voice comes down like a steel gate; "Sasuke. _Really_ think about what you’re about to say before you say it."

Sasuke does.

And in an _instant_ he realizes what a gigantic hypocrite Temari just saved him from becoming. He slowly shuts his mouth and lets his hands hang loose.

Sasuke mutters through grit teeth, "I… was ordered… to defer to your command. So… this isn’t up to me."

Temari grins her jackal-sharp grin; " _Don’t_ forget that again. Lady Chiyo, consider yourself temporarily reinstated."

Chiyo bows from the shoulders to Temari; "Thank you, dear."

Temari glares poisoned daggers at Chiyo; "Don’t call me 'dear'. Make no mistake, _I'm_ not sending you because you're an expert. I'm sending you to atone for your part in this."

Chiyo tenses up. Sasuke's brow furrows, his eyes drifting from Temari to Chiyo and back again. It seems Kankuro didn't have the whole story.

"If we’re done yelling at each other," Arsalan calls from the pavilion’s edge holding a summoning scroll above his head, "You’re in luck. Garuda took a flight shift from morning to noon yesterday, so he’s fully rested and ready to go. With two passengers, he should make it there in two hours."

Baki smiles, wide and proud; "You’re brilliant, Arsalan."

"We should get into international emergencies more often, if this is what it takes to get you to sweet talk me," Arsalan laughs.

Temari rolls her eyes; "Please, go ahead and summon him. Sasuke, are you ready to move out?"

Sasuke sighs through his nose, picking up Katsuyu and placing her back in his pocket; "As I’ll ever be. Katsuyu, relay our ETA to Naruto and Kakashi."

"Of course."

Sasuke and Chiyo follow Arsalan out to a wide open stretch of the mesa. Arsalan unfurls the scroll, bites his thumb, and runs through the signs for Summoning Jutsu. He slaps his palms in the center of the scroll and the resulting cloud of smoke nearly engulfs the whole mesa. Just as quickly as it appeared, two massive wingbeats clear it away. The hawk dwarfs the scroll that summoned it, standing over ten feet tall with a wingspan twice, maybe thrice that. The bird immediately starts preening Arsalan’s head wrap and Arsalan strokes the sides of it’s neck, speaking to it in a language Sasuke doesn’t understand.

After a few moments, Garuda steps back from Arsalan, who nods to Chiyo and Sasuke. Chiyo trots over to the bird and bows deeply from the waist, a bow that Garuda returns. He stays bowed, allowing Chiyo to climb (with Arsalan’s help) onto Garuda’s back. Sasuke takes a tentative look around before stepping forward and bowing low. He watches through his eyelashes as Garuda cocks his head to the left, then the right, then slowly bows in return.

As Sasuke climbs onto Garuda’s back, Chiyo scoffs, "So you _do_ have manners, after all."

Sasuke rolls his eyes; "Another thing Tsunade taught me."

Chiyo’s voice is low, but not low enough that Sasuke doesn’t catch her muttering, "You must have been a _terror_ before, then."

Arsalan clears his throat, drawing Sasuke’s attention back down to him; "I gave Garuda your heading, but you might need to change course along the way. He’ll respond to verbal commands, but if there’s no time for those you can tap the side of his neck to make him move in that direction. Good luck out there, both of you. Bring the Kazekage home."

Before Sasuke can reply, Garuda dips down low, spreads his wings, and takes off with one mighty flap. He soars for River Country, dragging Sasuke and Chiyo along with him.

* * *

As Katsuyu outlines Sasuke’s situation, Kakashi can’t help but dwell on the sick feeling in his stomach. It’s a very specific feeling, like falling too quickly from too high up. It feels like your stomach is all the way up in your chest, and it won’t settle until you hit the ground. But Kakashi still can’t see the ground.

When Katsuyu finishes, Naruto frowns and remarks, "Well, at least we only have to sit around for two more hours."

Kakashi forces a smirk beneath his mask; "Well, maybe _I_ will. You, on the other hand…"

Kakashi whistles high and sharp. Bull, Uhei, Akino, and Biscuit come creeping out of the undergrowth on their bellies, shaking the leaves out of their coats.

"It’s time you started looking for those other tags," Kakashi says.

Naruto’s eyes go wide, lighting up with the prospect of getting to _do_ something; "Alright! Leave it to us! Shadow Clone Jutsu!"

There’s a burst of smoke that quickly clears, revealing four more Narutos all crouched down low. They’re bunched in so tightly they almost look like pumpkins.

Naruto points to them and orders, "You all heard Kakashi-sensei, follow the dogs’ noses and find those tags!"

The clones salute in unison; "Aye-aye, cap’n!"

Kakashi addresses the dogs next; "Go down and get the scent of the ink from the tag in the center. If Naruto paid as close attention as he _says_ he did to Jiraiya’s fuinjutsu lessons, that’ll lead you right to the corner tags."

The dogs nod and bound down into the river gorge, the clones hot on their tails. Kakashi and Naruto watch intently as each dog sniffs at the tag, then scatter into the forest.

Kakashi rests his chin on his hand; "And now we’re back to the waiting."

Naruto lets his head fall backwards as he groans, "It was good while it lasted, I guess."

Kakashi gives Naruto a Look from the corner of his eye; "This is what ninja work is, Naruto, the banal reality of it. It’s a lot of sitting around and staring at things."

Naruto opens his mouth, but stops. His face falls into an expression best described as 'complicated' for a long moment. Before Kakashi can ask what’s on his mind, Naruto shakes his head.

"I’ve gotta concentrate," Naruto holds up a closed fist, "I’ll put up a finger for every tag the clones find."

"Right," Kakashi coughs.

And once more they lapse into silence. The fact that Naruto is completely still, his eyes closed, just makes it feel all the more stifling. The silence is punctuated by Naruto putting up a finger approximately every twenty-to-twenty five minutes. It takes almost the full two hours before all four are up and Naruto finally opens his eyes.

Kakashi turns to look at Katsuyu poking her head out of Naruto’s pocket; "How far out is Sasuke?"

"Not very," she replies, "He’ll likely arrive within the next five to ten minutes."

Naruto looks to Kakashi; "Well. You know what I wanna do."

Kakashi weighs his options. On the one hand, his gut is still telling him to be cautious. Experience is telling him to slow down, hold back, to not make a move until the whole team is together.

But where has that gotten him in the past? Waiting and seeing and taking things slow lead to him being too slow to catch Sakura before she slipped through his fingers. Following his instincts and his gut lead to him isolating himself from Sasuke and getting so, _so close_ to losing him. Trusting the lessons of experience lead to him giving Naruto away like a jacket that didn’t fit.

He told Tsunade he would keep Naruto and Sasuke honest… But maybe it needs to be the other way around.

So he says, "Let’s go."

Naruto’s jaw drops; "Really?"

Kakashi nods, rising to a crouch; "Really. Come on."

Naruto’s face blossoms into another grin. Kakashi feels a warmth building in his chest. The two of them leap down into the river gorge, channelling chakra into their feet to land _on_ the river instead of in it. Naruto creeps up to the hideout entrance, aligning himself with the center of the _torii_ gate, and taking hold of the seal tag’s corner.

He turns to look over his shoulder at Kakashi; "Alright, the clones are all ready. Count me down?"

Kakashi nods, backing up; "Right. On three. One… Two… _Three._ "

Naruto tears off the seal. The second he does, a wave of pressure hits them both, rocking them onto their heels, as the clones do the same in perfect sync. The pressure hangs in the air for a moment before, in one stroke, dissolving. The seal is broken.

But just as Naruto turns to grin at Kakashi, there’s a scuffing sound at the top of the gorge, right above the hideout. Naruto and Kakashi’s heads whip up to the source.

Perched atop the gorge is an individual in a familiar black cloak with an unfamiliar face. He peers down at them with ruddy purple eyes, his silver hair slicked back away from his face. The top few buttons of his cloak are undone, revealing no shirt underneath. Around his neck hangs a struck through Hot Water Village headband and a medallion of a circle with an upside down triangle inside it.

Oh, and of course, there’s a triple-bladed scythe with a long metal cable attached to the end slung across his shoulders.

He grins like he’s opening a wound; "Well whaddaya know! We’re getting two jinchuuriki for the price of one! What a _steal._ "

Naruto’s head whips from Kakashi to the man and back; "What the–?! Kakashi-sensei, who _is_ this guy?!"

Kakashi wracks the bingo book of his memory. It would be one thing if he came up empty. But instead, his memory takes reports and rumors and paints a picture in shades of blood. Bodies piled atop ritual circles. Hot Water Village’s attempt at peaceful disarmament ruined by a massacre. A winding trail of death with no end in sight.

Hidan is the kind of monster that needs no epithets. His name alone is enough.

But before Kakashi can say _any_ of that, Hidan sneers, "Oh I’ll tell you who the Hell I am," he stalks down the ravine’s side, dragging his scythe behind him and kicking up sparks, "To _you,_ Nine Tails, I’m your worst nightmare."

He flips the scythe around to point it directly at Kakashi; "And to _you,_ Bloodbag, I’m the motherfuckin’ Angel of Death."

Hidan lobs his scythe at Kakashi.

And all Kakashi can think is, _Here comes the ground._


	7. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hidan throws his arms out wide and laughs the laugh of a crazed clown; "Now, let the ritual finally begin!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's a bird! It's a plane! It's _a short chapter!_ True, my standards for 'short' are now '6k words', but it counts! I don't know if anything depicted in this chapter needs any new tags beyond the graphic violence warning that's on the story, but I will put on this chapter specifically a content warning that _Hidan_ is in it, and we all know how Hidan do.

**VI.** Chiyo still remembers her first flight. She had been just a girl then, still struggling to adjust to her tribe tying themselves down to give this 'hidden village' a try. Her wandering had taken her to the top of the cliffs, where a handsome young man of the Alsaqr tribe was feeding his bird. He’d looked to her, kohl-rimmed eyes bright, and offered her a ride. Boredom had been more powerful than caution. She’d accepted. The view from the air had been beautiful enough through young eyes for her to immediately fall in love with the man who’d gifted it to her.

Now, all she can do is scan the horizon for threats.

Sasuke _should_ be keeping a lookout for their landing point. But when she glances up to check on the boy, he’s staring out instead of down. His eyes are wide, dark but bright. It’s like he can’t even feel the wind biting at his cheeks. What is the world coming to, that even the _Uchiha_ are turning from wild boars to fattened hogs like the rest of the Leaf? In killing the entire rest of the clan Itachi must have severed their link to what sense Madara had.

Chiyo snaps, "There’s no time to gawk, Boy. Eyes on the ground. We can’t have you missing our landing point."

Sasuke’s shoulders tighten and he glares over his shoulder at her, sharingan whirling to life; "I _won’t_ miss it."

Oh, if that boy had seen what Suki Uchiha could do to the minds of men with her sharingan, he wouldn’t think his own were so intimidating.

Chiyo simply sneers, "A set of sharingan are only worth as much as the head they’re in. If you use your eyes and not your head you’re as good as useless."

Sasuke arches an eyebrow; "That’s not a popular opinion."

Chiyo lets her eyes dart back to the horizon as she speaks; "Of course it isn’t. The Leaf Village has always maintained it’s position at the top of the hill by flaunting it’s weapons' strengths and hiding their weaknesses. It was tailed beasts before, and it’s dōjutsu now."

The boy is quiet, his eyes dropping, but not to scan the ground; "Well. If you mean the byakugan, yeah. They can’t really flaunt the sharingan when there are only two sets left and one turned traitor."

Now it’s Chiyo’s turn to lapse into silence. How can a boy who saw his entire clan murdered before his eyes still be so naiive? But the operative word there, she supposes, is _boy_. She knows better than most how children can have uniquely childish interpretations of and reactions to the world’s horror.

To her, her voice sounds like it’s coming from past the horizon; "A village’s failures can be just as useful a tool as their successes. Why do you think your brother is still running free?"

Sasuke’s jaw clenches, words coming through his teeth like flour through a grinder; "Because _I_ haven’t put an end to him yet."

Chiyo frowns tightly; "Is that why you’re _really_ here? Revenge?"

Sasuke shoots back, "Isn’t that why _you’re_ here?"

Chiyo purses her lips; "Don’t you remember what Temari said? This isn’t about vengeance. It’s about atonement."

Though her mind rebelliously wonders how mutually exclusive those concepts are. Not just for her. She catches Sasuke’s eye as he glances back at her for a moment. She doesn’t know much about the massacre, but she does know how to do basic arithmetic. In her day, at the age he witnessed the massacre Sasuke would have been a genin, maybe a chunin. But she’s burned too many tiny corpses to believe that would’ve made much of a difference. That he could _still_ consider himself _responsible_ for an entire massacre…

A child's childish interpretation of the horrors of the world. It's achingly familiar. Chiyo buries that thought beneath decades of prejudice, but it burns, bright and insistent at the edge of her mind.

Sasuke finally trains his eyes on the ground; "Doesn’t matter either way. Even if Sasori and Itachi are right in front of us, Gaara comes first."

Chiyo focuses on the horizon. Her eyes roll over the trees, the mountains, the flocks of birds… Then back to the birds. A murder of crows is flying their way, cruising steadily fifteen feet above them. Chiyo’s brow furrows. This is crow country, certainly, the trees are tall enough for them to roost. But that’s too many crows to be flying that smoothly. Not just smoothly– They’re flying in _formation,_ in a V like migrating geese. Just in time to confirm her suspicion, the murder suddenly dives, the spear point of their formation piercing straight for Garuda.

Chiyo cries out, "Dive, Garuda!"

The great hawk dives a fraction of a second too late. The crows clip his tail, Chiyo’s scalp, and the arm Sasuke throws between their claws and his eyes. Sasuke grits his teeth and throws a glance over his shoulder just in time to see the crows moving as one, whirling around and racing after Garuda. Sasuke taps the left side of Garuda’s neck and the hawk swoops to the left, pulling his wings in and punching through the canopy. The crows break ranks and half follow them down, their smaller bodies flying easily through the holes in the foliage. Sasuke taps both hands on the crown of the hawk’s head and he pulls back up, the hairpin turn leaving some of the crows scrambling to follow.

They break back through the leaves only to fly directly into the other half of the murder. Their eyes glow red in the morning sun as they swarm Garuda, beaks and claws tearing out clumps of his feathers. Chiyo ducks down, pressing herself as tightly to Garuda’s back as she can. The crows slash at her back and pull at her hair, drawing blood. Sasuke grits his teeth and keeps an arm between the crows and his eyes, forcing them to take chunks out of his exposed arms and tear holes in his shirt.

Chiyo only has a moment’s warning. She catches sight of Sasuke tapping one side of Garuda’s neck then the other in rapid succession before channeling his chakra into his arms and legs to stick himself to Garuda’s back. Chiyo sends chakra threads out through her fingertips and wraps them around Garuda, tying herself to the hawk. The instant she does, Garuda does an abrupt barrel roll. The bird’s wide wingspan whipping around in a circle scatters the crows, but only for a moment. The instant Garuda levels off, the crows are back on his tail.

Those crows left behind in the forest come swooping up from the canopy to rejoin the murder. Garuda swoops and dives and spins in tight, nauseating corkscrews, but the crows have his scent. They keep perfect pace with the great hawk, shifting their formation to adapt to every evasive maneuver, always staying one wingbeat ahead.

Just as Chiyo is wracking her brain for a strategy, Sasuke shouts, "Garuda, level off!"

Garuda does as he’s bade, pushing ahead of the crows with a few strong wingbeats before catching the wind and flattening out. Sasuke pulls the chakra in his arms into a spot on his forehead and funnels all the chakra in his legs into the soles of his feet. He doffs his jacket, ties it around his waist, and pulls on a pair of familiar leather gloves. He pushes up into a crouch, then to his full height.

Chiyo splutters, "What are you _doing?!_ "

Sasuke shouts above the rushing wind and screaming crows, "Flight’s not working, and we can’t fight if Garuda flings us off!"

Chiyo yelps, "Have you lost your mind?!"

Sasuke’s mouth pulls into a manic grin; "It runs in the family, doesn’t it?!"

Chiyo accepts in an instant that she is going to die and this little Uchiha pissant is going to be the cause.

* * *

Hidan lobs his scythe at Kakashi. In a blur of orange Naruto tackles him out of the way, sending them both crashing down onto the river's surface. They can’t stay down long. The scythe’s blades come down a few feet past them and drag the river, slicing for Kakashi’s scalp. Kakashi grabs Naruto by the collar and rolls them both out of the way, the scythe missing them by a hair. He pulls them up and onto their feet in time to hear the whine of metal cable as Hidan retracts the scythe. He doesn’t pull it all the way back to his hand, instead waiting until it reaches the apex of it’s arc before whipping it around and swinging it back towards them with a flick of his wrist.

Naruto’s eyes dart from Kakashi to Hidan and back before running through _Dog Boar Ram_ and shouting, "Throw me!"

In a puff of smoke Naruto is replaced with a fūma shuriken. Kakashi grabs Naruto-the-Shuriken out of the air, whips his body around in a circle, and throws him like a discus. If Kakashi was facing a person with any sense of self-preservation, they would’ve ducked or dodged out of the way and thrown off the arc of their swing. Hidan doesn’t move an inch. Naruto-the-Shuriken’s blades hit him right in the gut, cutting a gash through Hidan’s torso deep and wide enough to expose a length of intestine.

And all it does is make Hidan laugh, "Hook, line, _and sinker!_ "

The scythe’s blades come swinging back for Kakashi. Kakashi dives to the side, channeling chakra into his hands to grab hold of the ravine wall and throw himself onto it. Before he can stick his feet to the wall there’s the horrible sound of metal scraping on stone. Kakashi cuts the flow of chakra to his hands and drops back to the river, narrowly avoiding the scythe’s blades as they drag through where his fingertips had been seconds before. He lands on the water’s surface just as a gust of wind sends Naruto-the-Shuriken flying back around for Hidan. This time the blades slice through the junction of his right arm and shoulder, digging down into the chest.

It’s the kind of wound that should leave that arm useless forever. But Hidan reaches over with that arm to grab the cable and whip the scythe up, hitting Naruto-the-Shuriken mid-flight with the shaft. The shuriken bursts into smoke and Naruto tumbles out of it. He’s able to catch himself midair and land in a roll on the river, stopping next to Kakashi in his low stance.

From the corner of his eye Kakashi spots Naruto shaking himself off like a dog, his pupils elongating out into slits. The air around him grows a few degrees warmer and the hair on the back of Kakashi's neck stands up. The seal Jiraiya gave him is itching in the chest pocket of his flak jacket.

"What the Hell?! He shouldn’t even be standing right now," Naruto exclaims, "What’s with this guy, is he immortal or something?!"

"And Itachi said you were _dumb,_ " Hidan laughs, dragging his feet to smear his own blood in a circle on the wall, "Well, he didn't use the word _dumb_ because he's too _polite,_ but I got the gist."

Hidan’s feet come to a stop. He’s smeared the blood from his gut wound into a design identical to the one on his medallion. It’s the same design Kakashi’s seen in crime scene photos, the centerpiece nightmarish tableaus filled with bodies that endured all manner of tortures before finally being allowed to die. What exactly it does, Kakashi can’t say. But he’s not about to find out.

He pulls up his headband to reveal his sharingan. His hands flash through signs and he’s drops to slap one flat on the river’s surface. His chakra twists down into the river and swirls up, dragging water with it in the shape of a roaring dragon and firing it at Hidan. Hidan kicks off the ravine and leaps to the other side, narrowly avoiding the dragon. It crashes against the circle but doesn’t so much as smudge the blood. Only now can Kakashi see the chakra mixed in with the blood, sealing the circle in place.

Hidan cackles, "Like Hell is it gonna be that easy!"

Hidan sprints along the wall, whipping the scythe out ahead of him. Naruto tucks and rolls around Kakashi, weaving around the scythe’s blades. He grabs hold of the scythe’s shaft and cable, his eyes shift from blue to red, and with a mighty grunt he pulls towards himself. He tears Hidan off the wall, but in midair Hidan reaches into his coat and the cable reels the scythe back in, pulling a bewildered Naruto with it. Naruto flies directly into Hidan’s fist, the blow hitting him right in the nose and breaking his hold on the scythe. Naruto drops like a stone. Hidan keeps flying along his arc, landing in a roll a yard away from Kakashi.

Hidan hops to his feet with a grin; "Now that we’re all up close and personal, I gotta ask– Have you heard the good news about Jashin?"

Kakashi can only stare at him for a heartbeat before Hidan lashes out, blades cutting for his throat. He drops into a crouch, narrowly avoiding the scythe, and sweeps a kick for Hidan’s ankles. Hidan spins out of range, swinging his scythe in sync with his body and forcing Kakashi to roll backwards to avoid the blades.

"We get a bad rap, but really Jashinism is the perfect faith for shinobi. Like, Ninshū is so _hypocritical._ Promoting _pacifisim? Really?_ Newsflash, Sage, you can’t _invent ninjutsu_ then tell people not to use it!"

Naruto comes barreling back into the fight, claws on his hands and slashing for Hidan’s eyes. Hidan takes his scythe in a reverse grip and blocks Naruto’s claws with the flats of the blades, knocking him away with the shaft. The metal cable grates on Kakashi’s ears as Hidan leaps back and throws the sycthe forward, swiping the blades a hair’s breadth from their guts. They both leap backwards, the scythe missing them by heartbeat.

"Like yeah yeah, the rituals and prayers can be a bit tedious, but what’s life without ritual? You’ve got no _structure,_ and that’s what Jashinism gives you!"

The scythe buries itself in the gorge wall and Hidan retracts the cable, pulling himself in. Kakashi and Naruto both flash through hand signs, Naruto firing off a gust of wind and Kakashi a fireball. The fireball absorbs the wind and balloons out to fill the ravine with heat and light. Hidan catches himself on the wall and runs along it, grabbing his scythe midstep and shielding himself from the flames with a few wide circular swipes. He punches through the flames with pieces of his robe and skin smoldering, but of course he doesn't care.

"But it’s not about the rituals, not _really_. What really drew _me_ to the faith was the real _core_ of it, the philosophy."

Hidan leaps off the wall and flies between Naruto and Kakashi. He spins in midair, the scythe spinning with him like the blades of a windmill. Kakashi darts out of the way an instant before Naruto does, the blades tearing through his jacket and scratching against his chain shirt. Hidan lands with another sweep of his scythe, kicking water up around him in a fan.

"It’s about _helping people,_ you know? Easing their fears, taking the burdens of the world off their shoulders. And how you do it couldn’t be simpler!"

Naruto and Kakashi both throw their arms up to keep the water from getting in their eyes. Kakashi brings his down first, just in time to see Hidan charging straight for him. Kakashi draws a kunai in each hand. He needs to stop dodging the scythe and start blocking, that’s the only way he’ll get in close enough to do anything worth a damn. Naruto drops into a low run, sprinting with his claws bared and his eyes locked on Hidan’s flank.

Hidan grins. Once he’s a yard away from Kakashi he suddenly pivots, throwing his scythe directly at Naruto.

"You just gotta _kill the shit out of 'em!_ "

Naruto’s reflexes are quick. Hidan’s are quicker. And Kakashi’s beat them both. He sprints in between Naruto and Hidan, shoulder-checking Naruto out of the way and ducking just beneath the scythe. The metal cable screams. Kakashi feels the blades tear through his shoulder before he sees them, flying back to Hidan’s hand. Kakashi rolls to a clumsy stop, a hand shooting up to put pressure on his injured shoulder. Hidan drags his tongue along the blades, slurping up Kakashi’s blood, before turning tail and dashing back towards his circle.

That's not good. That _can't_ be good. Why would he _run_ after finally gaining ground? Why did he _lick Kakashi's blood?_ He doesn't know details but his gut is screaming at him, and ignoring his gut got them here.

Kakashi shouts to Naruto, "Don’t let him reach the circle!"

Naruto bares his sharp teeth, summons a clone, and races after Hidan. The clone follows a half-step back, gathering chakra in Naruto’s outstretched palm into a spinning gyre of light that grows and grows with every step. Hidan swerves up and onto the wall, barely a few yards away from his circle. If he can hear or even cares about the extra-large Rasengan both Narutos are carrying, he’s not showing it. Naruto and the clone follow him onto the wall, quickly gaining on him, but Hidan is shoving so much chakra into his feet to keep his lead that they’re glowing bright blue.

The instant before the two Narutos catch up, Hidan throws his scythe, burying it in the wall just a few steps past the circle. He retracts the line, skating along the wall with chakra coming off his heels like sparks. Both Narutos let out frustrated roars. Chakra, red and bubbling, coats their soles and boosts them forward. The stone beneath their feet breaks as they run across it. They make up the lead, but not by enough. They thrust the Rasengan forward just as Hidan skids to a halt in the center of the circle. Hidan’s legs light up as he shoves a metric ton of chakra into them.

The Rasengan collides with Hidan’s back. Hidan’s torso jolts forward, doubling almost all the way over, but he stays rooted to the spot.

And before Kakashi can even curse their luck, he feels a rending drill grinding into his spine. The force of the blow knocks him to his knees, the sudden burst of uniquely agonizing pain pushing a ragged scream past all his training about how a shinobi should not show weakness and out through his mouth. It’s like being hit by a hurricane compressed into an area the size of a beach ball.

A distant part of Kakashi’s mind can only think, _So_ that’s _what getting hit with the Rasengan feels like._

The howling wail of the Rasengan cuts off. Kakashi coughs blood into his mask and he tries to force himself to his feet, but his legs feel like they’re ten feet away from his body. His chakra control is wavering, his knees and palms sinking an inch below the surface of the river. Kakashi pulls his head up to see Naruto’s clone dispersing into smoke, Naruto staring at Kakashi in feral horror.

Hidan slowly straightens. His back is a ruin of ground flesh and shattered bone. Even if he's immortal, damage to his spine on that level should leave him paralyzed, but Kakashi supposes the fact that he can still distantly feel his own legs is proof enough that it looks worse than it is. Around the gaping wound, Hidan's flesh has changed to a deep black with markings in white in the abstract echo of the bones beneath. Hidan pivots around, a painfully wide grin on his skull of a face.

Hidan throws his arms out wide and laughs the laugh of a crazed clown; "Now, let the ritual _finally_ begin!"

* * *

Sasuke rolls his shoulders, lightning coursing down his arms and sparking off his fists. With his sharingan active he can track each bird in the murder as they swarm around Garuda like a storm cloud. That doesn’t make their speed, numbers, and ferocity any less intimidating. A voice that sounds like Lee in the back of his mind tells him that trying to punch flying birds out of the air is a fool’s errand.

And another, his own, reminds him that if he can punch a boulder out of the air and dodge arquebus bullets he can _definitely_ punch out a bird.

Sasuke swings for the fences. His first punch collides with a crow flying for his eyes. The lightning roasts the bird alive and sends it falling away, a smoking trail following it down to earth. The second hits a crow trying to swoop around him to get to Chiyo and the bird goes shooting off into the wild blue yonder like a black firecracker.

Sasuke throws hands, feet, elbows and knees at any birds that come close. Each blow connects, sending birds flying off them like soot from an erupting volcano. But Sasuke only has four limbs. There are over fifty crows, and when one falls three swoop up to take it’s place. The crows move with intention and intelligence. Crows are smart enough on their own, but these birds act like they’re being directed by a trained tactician, with formations and divisions and everything. While the vanguard charge Sasuke, giving him sacrificial targets to keep him busy, the cavalry flank Garuda and harass Chiyo. The rearguard surrounds them, blocking visibility, because the sharingan isn’t the byakugan and cover is cover even if it’s made up of a murder of crows.

That tactic isn't just intelligent. It's eeriely prescient. Sasuke's not sure if the chill up his spine is fear or excitement, so he settles on calling it 'both'.

Sasuke dips down into a crouch and taps the junction of Garuda’s neck and left wing. Garuda swoops down and to the left, breaching through the cloud of crows and buying them a yard of space before the crows turn as one and give chase.

He takes this moment to open his jacket pocket and call down to Katsuyu, "Are we still on course?!"

The slug’s soft voice strains to be heard over the rushing wind and screeching crows; "Yes, if we can keep going straight at this speed we will make it there in three minutes–!"

Chiyo cuts in, shouting over Katsuyu; "These crows won’t let that happen! We’re outmatched in the air, we have to bail out and try finding the summoner!"

Sasuke grits his teeth and snarls, "We _don’t have time_ for that! If you’re not gonna help me, just _shut up and let me focus!_ "

"That’s the _point,_ I _can’t help you_ while we’re on this damn bird," Chiyo snaps, "I’m a _puppetmaster,_ if I summon my puppets their weight will drag Garuda down!"

Sasuke glares over his shoulder and opens his mouth to shout something unhelpful, but snaps it shut when he takes a second look at Chiyo. Tying her to Garuda’s back are a weave of chakra strings, glowing bright against her dark robes. Sasuke’s mind races back to every time he’s crossed paths with Kankuro, every mission of theirs that’s intersected on accident and on purpose. He’s seen him use chakra strings to rappel down cliff faces, tie up enemies, create surveillance webs, and even sew wounds shut. They’re arguably more useful than the puppets themselves.

Sasuke’s eyes glance past Chiyo to the quickly advancing crows; "I’ve got an idea but I need to know if it’ll work!"

Chiyo rolls her eyes; "Spirits preserve me, what is it _now?!_ "

The gears in Sasuke’s head are turning quickly enough to kick up sparks; "I know you can use chakra threads to grab onto opponents! What about extending that chakra thread to connect an opponent you’ve grabbed to someone else?!"

Chiyo’s mouth drops open, but no sound comes out. Her eyes sweep back and forth, doing mental math at a rapid pace. The crow vanguard swoops below Garuda, biting and clawing at the underside of his tail. Garuda lets out a sharp cry, wobbling in the air. That lapse is enough for the crows to make up the gap. In an instant the murder is back on them, surrounding them on all sides.

Chiyo shoves a breath out through her teeth; "It’s _possible!_ It could only connect a few targets who are right next to each other and it would strain the thread, weakening it, but it could be done!"

Sasuke nods; "Alright, I need you to connect as many of the crows as you can! Tell me when you’re at your limit and I’ll take care of the rest!"

Chiyo sputters, "Are you _allergic_ to telling people your whole plans, boy?!"

"Do you _want_ me to throw you off this bird?! Because I _will_ if you don’t stop talking and start _helping!_ "

Chiyo clicks her tongue against her teeth, but unravels the strings keeping her flush against Garuda’s back and brings herself up into an unsteady crouch. Sasuke, on instinct, reaches back to steady her. She spares him an odd little look before flexing her fingers, drawing chakra up to the tips, and shooting ten chakra strings out into the cloud of crows. Sasuke starts gathering chakra, kneading it in his chest and his stomach.

Sasuke tracks the strings with his sharingan, watching as each finds a crow flying slower or sloppier than it’s fellows and grabs it by the ankle. The crows thrash against the tether but the strings hold fast. The strings loop around the crows’ legs before shooting out at a random angle, catching the ten crows nearest to those already captured. The strings are already looking lean and pale. Free crows turn their attention away from Garuda to bite and claw at the strings, threatening to snap them. Still, Chiyo grits her teeth, and with a grunt the strings shoot off once again to grab ten more crows.

The strings are nearly invisible. Blood is beading at the tips of Chiyo’s fingers, the force of thirty crows all flapping their wings and flying in circles threatening to pull Chiyo off Garuda’s back. There’s no way she can afford to send chakra down to her feet. It’s pure luck she hasn’t been thrown off already.

Sweat pours down her weathered face as she hisses, "Whatever you’re going to do, do it now!"

Sasuke jolts to his feet. He reaches for the portion of the strings between Chiyo and her targets and takes hold of all ten, five in each fist. He sends the chakra he's been gathering surging up to his shoulders and down his arms. His right arm is a shower of red and yellow sparks, his left a torrent of blue. He channels the chakra all the way down past his hands and into Chiyo’s chakra strings.

The strings ignite, shocking blue and burning red. The murder of crows explodes like a volcanic lightning storm. Thirty crows drop like flies, burning comets and charred lumps of ash, while a dozen more fly in frantic corkscrews in a desperate attempt to put out burning feathers. The crows swirl around Garuda like swarming wasps, all semblance of organization dead and gone, but still incredibly dangerous. Maybe even more so. Their eyes don’t shine red anymore, shifting back to button-black.

Sasuke wants to contemplate the implications of that but he doesn’t have time, instead shouting down to Katsuyu, "Are we there yet?!"

Katsuyu’s reply comes back in the closest thing to a yelp he’s ever heard from the slug; "Yes! We’re right on top of the hideout!"

Sasuke grits his teeth. Even broken and burnt the crows are still swarming. They won’t let Garuda come in for a landing without a fight. But if these crows are the Akatsuki’s doing, Garuda’s not the priority, not _really_. An idea comes to him an instant. It’s a terrible, completely boneheaded, impulsive move that Tsunade _will_ chew him out for when he gets back. But it’s the only idea he’s got.

And besides, Tsunade can only chew him out for what actually goes in the report.

Sasuke turns to Chiyo first; "Get on my back!"

" _What?!_ "

"Just _do it_ or I will _leave you behind!_ "

Chiyo scrambles over and Sasuke helps her onto his back. She secures herself with chakra strings tied tight around his abdomen.

Next, Sasuke calls to Garuda, "When I whistle, dive down to meet us!"

Garuda lets out a loud call. He’s just gonna go ahead and pretend that’s a yes. Sasuke takes one last second to get his bearings. They’re circling above a river gorge with a _torii_ gate and a large boulder embedded in the side. Through the sharingan's sharp red filter, Sasuke can pick out a pair of leaf headbands at a glance. One of them is on the ravine wall. He spits a low curse, but he knows Naruto's reflexes are quick. He waits until Garuda is _almost_ perfectly lined up with the boulder.

Then, finally, he shouts, " _LOOK OUT BELOW!_ "

Sasuke leaps off of Garuda’s back.

Chiyo screams in his ear in harmony with the rushing wind. Sasuke moves all the chakra he’s been building up over the course of the fight into his fist, pulling it back. The instant before he hits the ground, he strikes, releasing the chakra at the same time his fist collides with the ground.

And the ground caves in.

* * *

Naruto’s voice is a harsh, rock-scraping-against-rock growl; "What did you do?!"

Hidan is still cackling. Kakashi is still gasping for breath, a hand on his back clutching at the growing bloodstain on his flak jacket. The air around Naruto ratchets up a degree, the chakra in his belly bubbling like molten lava.

His hands snap out, his claws digging into Hidan’s shoulders, as he shouts in his face, " _Tell me what the Hell you did right now–!_ "

Naruto is cut off by a choked swear from Kakashi. He looks over his shoulder to see him double over again, fresh puncture wounds piercing through the shoulders of his flak jacket all the way down to the skin. Naruto immediately lets go, pushing off Hidan like he’s red hot and stepping back along his path of broken earth.

Hidan clicks his tongue against his teeth, wagging a finger at Naruto; "Temper temper, Nine Tails! Anything you do to me, you do to him! It’s Jashin’s ultimate gift, the ability to truly _feel_ and _understand_ the pain of others. Why would you _rob_ your sensei of something so _enlightening?_ "

"Don’t _call me_ Nine Tails! I’m Naruto Uzumaki, not that _thing!_ " Naruto roars, fingers flexing as his claws itch to rake the grin right off of Hidan’s skeletal face.

Hidan leans in, a hand to his chin; “You sure? You’ve got predator eyes, claws, flesh-rippin’ teeth–”

He reaches out for Naruto’s mouth and Naruto snaps his teeth at his fingers, only making Hidan laugh as he draws them back, “You’re even biting like a fox! Face it, kid, you’re as close to beast as you can get without growing a tail.”

"Naruto," Kakashi shouts, drawing Naruto’s attention back over his shoulder, "You have to force him out of the circle! Why do you think he’s spending so much chakra to stay in it?! It’s the key to the ritual, it has to be!"

Naruto pushes against the fog of rage, a cocktail of him and the _thing_ inside him, clearing just enough room to take stock of the situation. This guy’s sharp, but he made one big mistake by drawing this circle on a vertical surface. The obvious move is to lame him out, run down the clock and wait for his chakra to start running low and his control to slip, but that’s not gonna work. Not with someone who’s immortal and a Kakashi that’s super _not_ immortal. If Naruto stalls, Hidan will just stab himself through the heart and that’ll be the end of Kakashi.

He could overwhelm him, but summoning a bunch of clones to beat on Hidan until his concentration breaks and he falls is the same as sending them all to beat on Kakashi. The answer here isn’t pretty, but it’s at least simple. He needs to hit Hidan with something hard and blunt to shove him out of that circle in one shot.

Naruto pulls absolutely too much chakra from the wellspring in his stomach, kneading it around his heart. He sends it down his arm as he throws a punch at the empty space in front of him. The chakra comes off his fist as a blast of compressed air aiming right for Hidan’s stomach. A tiny part of him apologizes to Kakashi, because this is gonna hurt like a motherfucker.

Hidan’s hand shoots into his coat and comes back out holding a spike made from black metal. He flicks his wrist and the spike extends into a spear half as tall as Hidan himself. In the same motion he thrusts the spear not out but down. The point pierces through Hidan’s left leg, just above the ankle, and doesn’t stop until the spear is buried a foot into the ravine wall. Naruto hears a splash and a grunt of pain. He doesn’t need to look. He can picture Kakashi stumbling mid step, blood welling up from his shin and through his fatigues, his chakra control faltering and his leg dropping into the water.

He can’t stop the blow, not now that it's left his fist. It slams headlong into Hidan’s stomach. He and Kakashi let out pained _oomphs_ in perfect sync. Hidan’s legs stop glowing as his chakra control falters, but while his body falls to the side the spike through his leg keeps his foot pinned to wall. The spear twists and Naruto squeezes his eyes shut, gritting his teeth at the sound of a strangled cry from Kakashi. The fog of rage surges back in. When Naruto opens his eyes, he’s seeing red. Hidan channels chakra back down his right leg and swings the rest of his body back into the circle.

To _Hell_ with this, he’ll just _pull him off._

Naruto bares his claws, but before he can run forward Hidan crows, "Oh I know _that_ look! Better get prepped!"

Another lightning fast flick of the wrist and a second spear is in Hidan’s hand. Naruto sprints along the wall, so low he’s nearly on all fours, but Hidan is faster. He drives the second spear through his right leg, pinning that leg to the wall. Kakashi doesn’t scream or even grunt this time. There’s just another _splash_ as he seems to choke on his own breath, like breathing alone is a Herculean effort. Hidan’s torso leans towards the ground as he doesn’t even bother sending chakra into his legs anymore. The spikes groan under his weight, but keep him pinned like a butterfly in a display case.

Naruto skids to a halt, inches away from the circle. The gears of his mind have a wrench thrown in them. All he wants to do is tear Hidan off the circle, even if it means ripping his legs off at the knee. But Kakashi’s quick, ragged panting is like an animal caught in a trap, and it’s all he can hear.

Hidan’s grin twists into a sneer; "Go on. I know you want to. Look at him, Nine Tails. Take in his pain. _Feel it._ "

Naruto slowly lets his head turn, glancing over his shoulder.

Kakashi is up to his chest in the water, arms glowing up to the elbow as they hold onto the river’s surface to keep himself from having to tread water. The river around him is running red. His mismatched eyes are wide and his face is ghostly pale, a perfect match for his hair.

Kakashi shakes his head; "It doesn’t matter what you have to do, Naruto, just _–_ "

"Not so fast, _sensei!_ "

There’s the sound of metal sliding on metal. Naruto’s head whips back to Hidan. He’s holding his scythe up, all three blades a hair’s breadth away from his chest. Naruto’s heart skips a beat.

His voice drops into a low rasp; "Think carefully, Nine Tails. I’m immortal. _Sensei_ isn’t. I’m a pious man, you know, and Jashin’s most important commandment is that a battle is meant to be a complete and total slaughter. I’m not supposed to leave people half dead, _but_ …"

Hidan pulls the scythe away and points with it towards the hideout entrance; "Jashin isn’t signing my checks, and I _really_ gotta start pulling my weight around here, you understand? My boss in there would just _love it_ if I brought another Jinchūriki in today–"

Kakashi’s voice comes from behind him in a shout; "Naruto _don’t,_ Sasuke’s almost here–!"

"– And you can help me do that! Just agree to turn yourself over without a fight–"

"– _Don’t listen to him!_ He _won’t–!_ "

"– And I’ll walk out of this circle. We’ll head into the hideout together and Sensei can go free. How’s that sound?"

Naruto’s head feels like it’s about to split in half. He can barely hear the sound of his own thoughts beneath a deep, resonant growl of _rip and tear with tooth and claw break his bones and cut his flesh wide open rend him asunder and make him regret ever threatening what’s yours._ Naruto is at once on this ravine wall and in a damp dank cell, straining to hold the gate closed as massive jaws snap at the bars. His vision is tunneling down to a single point, that hyena grin on Hidan’s face. He wants to wedge his claws in the corners of his mouth and cut up to his ears. He wants to rip the tongue from his mouth and eat it.

Naruto snarls, as much beast as man, "Go _fuck yourself._ "

Hidan’s jaw drops open, and he laughs, "For being a fox, you sure ain’t clever," before flipping the scythe back around to point at his chest–

" _LOOK OUT BELOW!_ "

Naruto’s head whips up just in time to see a blue and black shape plummeting down from the sky, just below a giant hawk being harried by a murder of crows. The shape drops like a stone, getting close enough quick enough for Naruto to identify it as Sasuke with an old woman on his back, pulling his fist back for some kind of blow.

Kakashi calls out, "Get out of the way, Naruto!"

Naruto shakes his head and shouts, "Sorry, Kakashi-sensei, this is gonna hurt!"

His hands lash out like rattlesnakes, wrap around the spears in Hidan’s legs, and tear them out. Hidan’s eyes go wide. He starts to fall.

Sasuke hits the ground.

And the ground caves in.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Despite this being a short chapter, I can now say that this series as a whole by word count is now longer than the third-longest A Song of Ice and Fire book, so go us!


	8. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chiyo looks Kakashi in the eye; "Are you sure this will work?"
> 
> Kakashi shakes his head; "Not in the slightest. But even if it doesn’t, at least no one can say we didn’t try."
> 
> Naruto nods; "It’s like you told us, abandoning your friends makes you worse than trash. We can’t abandon Gaara now!"
> 
> Kakashi tucks away how that makes his heart clench with bittersweet pride and just says, "Exactly. Now, let’s get to work."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For anyone joining us from the future, this is the chapter that the Body Horror tag was added for.

**VII.** The only warning Deidara gets is Zetsu and Itachi’s eyes both going wide at the exact same time, and three voices snapping, "Brace yourselves–!"

Deidara’s art form is explosions _._ His reaction time is honed down to the millisecond. He zips through one-handed signs and in a heartbeat his clay bird is over his head, wings spread wide. He crouches on the statue’s knuckle as Pain's shadow forms the _Snake_ sign. The Nine Phantom Dragons pull back, dragging the One Tail’s jinchūriki to float between the Gedo Statue’s open palms. The statue’s hands creak closer to each other, shifting the projected silhouettes of the Akatsuki back onto the knuckles, as they slowly attempt to close over the One Tail.

And then the ceiling collapses.

Deidara cloaks himself in Earth chakra and drops to his stomach. He grips the statue’s finger like a monkey gripping a tree trunk, arm and legs wrapped as far around it as he can get. His bird takes the brunt of the blow, massive chunks of stone smashing it’s tail and the tip of it’s beak clean off. What sneaks through the cracks bounces and slides off Deidara like water off a duck’s back. Through his scope, he keeps an eye on the merchandise. Despite not closing all the way around the jinchūriki, the fingers of the Gedo Statue are large and sturdy enough to shield the One Tail from the worst of the debris. Sasori’s probably fine.

The first thing Deidara hears when the rain of rock lightens to a drizzle is Hidan groan, " _Boss,_ the rockslide killed the body double! We _really_ gotta start finding sturdier guys for this jutsu."

Deidara hops back to his haunches and surveys the damage. His eyes go wide. The entire hideout is exposed to the sky and is now sporting a new carpet made from rubble. The boulder gate and ravine wall have gone the way of the ceiling, and though water trickles out through the cracks the debris have completely dammed up the river. With his scope Deidara can pick out pieces of broken _torii_ gate, the nearly-pulped arm of Yura, and the mangled leg of whoever had doubled for Itachi poking out of the stone.

There’s movement out near the river, but Deidara’s eye zeroes in on the two forms crouched in the dead center of the 'blast zone’. The young man and old woman look dusty and crow-bitten, but there aren’t any burns from explosives going off in their faces. The young man’s gloved fist is planted in the middle of the ground, the last wisps of chakra dissolving around it. The young man stands, helping the old woman off his back, and when he glares up at the Akatsuki it’s with a pair of bright red sharingan.

"Holy _shit…_ " Deidara’s mouth spreads into a giddy grin and he crows, "Holy _shit_ that was _amazing!_ Look at this! You did this with just your _fist?!_ Hey, hey, Itachi, this is your little brother, right? He has _way_ more style than you do, hm!"

Sasuke’s eyes zero in on Itachi’s silhouette, sharingan meeting sharingan, before his lip lifts in a dark, ragged snarl, " _Coward._ "

Deidara shrugs a shoulder; "Okay so maybe you both got the overdramatic self-serious gene but nobody’s perfect, hm."

Sasori’s voice comes from his left, painted in quizzical shades; "Chiyo. You look well."

Chiyo purses her lips, then forces herself to look down her nose at Sasori; "No thanks to _you._ How long has it been since you looked in on your dear old grandmother? Your mother and father would be ashamed."

Sasori’s wooden face doesn’t shift, but his tail thrashes out from beneath his cloak, whipping this way and that like an angry cat.

Deidara’s eyes dart between Sasori and Chiyo; "Seriously, Sasori my man? Your _grandmother_ is here too? Why did no one _tell_ me this was going to be a family reunion? I would’ve invited my sister, hm."

"Both of you, _focus,_ " Pain’s resonant voice snaps, drawing Deidara’s attention back to him, "The extraction is only a third of the way complete and our cover is blown. Deidara, Sasori, hold them off while I work. The rest of you are dismissed. You will be notified once I’ve moved the Gedo Statue and jinchūriki to a more secure location."

"You’re not taking him anywhere," Sasuke snaps, "Chiyo, cover me! Naruto, Kakashi, if you can hear me, hold the entrance!"

Six of the seven silhouettes flicker out, the Nine Phantom Dragons going with them and dropping the One Tail into the crook between the Gedo Statue’s slowly closing hands. Sasuke leaps into action. He sprints for the Gedo Statue, as fast as his brother, maybe faster. Deidara chokes on a swear and leaps up onto his bird, soaring towards Sasuke while Sasori scuttles down the statue’s arm like a spider. Deidara shoves his hand into his hip pouch and feeds his last bit of explosive clay to the mouth on his hand, kneading his chakra into it.

Deidara isn’t in the air long before he hears the sounds of rattling wood coming from either side. He clocks two puppets flanking him, one modeled after a dark haired woman wielding a serrated katana and another modeled after a red haired man wielding a wooden whip covered in kunai. He swerves in midair to avoid their blows and the puppets dog his steps, determined to keep him as far away from Sasuke as they can. Deidara’s running too low on clay to go slinging it around willy-nilly, so instead he reaches out with tendrils of Earth chakra to pull up two broken boulders and fire them at the puppets.

The puppets come together, clasping their free hands for a moment before pulling them apart to reveal razor wires connecting them by the fingers. They loop through the air like synchronized swimmers and slice the boulders to pieces, chunks of stone flying everywhere, but Deidara’s not one to let a tool go to waste if he can still use it. He grabs the chunks of stone out of the air with his chakra and turns them in, sending them flying back at the two puppets. The puppets break the wires, stow their weapons and fly until they’re back to back. Both press their arms together, palms out, and the slats on the sides of their arms fan out. Chakra radiates out from their arms in a shield, the stone chunks bouncing off them and joining the rest of the rubble on the ground.

As he grapples with the puppets Deidara keeps an eye trained on Sasori. Once Sasori is within fifty feet of Sasuke he lets Hiruko’s jaw drop open, spitting a hail of senbon at the oncoming threat, but Sasuke’s reflexes are supernaturally fast and any he doesn’t dodge he knocks out of the air with a tantō emblazoned with the Uchiha crest on the pommel. Sasori lifts his left arm and fires off the torpedo-like appendage. Sasuke leaps over it, whirling in the air an instant before the senbon shrapnel fires off and avoiding or blocking every single one in his path. Sasuke throws the tantō the moment before Sasori’s tail whips out to strike for him. The blade catches between two joints of the iron tail, freezing the tail in mid-strike. Sasuke lands _hard_ on the center of Hiruko’s back, shattering the puppet’s heavy lacquer shell with one foot like he’d stomped on a glass figurine.

Hiruko’s pieces go flying, forcing Deidara to swoop to avoid some of the shrapnel. While _he_ catches sight of Sasori’s "real" body landing in an undignified heap a few feet away from the wreckage, Sasuke doesn’t seem to give two shits. He pauses only to wrench his tantō out of Hiruko’s tail before launching back into his marathon sprint. He’s barely thirty feet away from the Gedo Statue, it’s hands still folding around the One Tail at an agonizing pace. It’s _definitely_ not gonna have them closed by the time Sasuke gets there.

Sasori and Pain both look to him and snap in perfect synch, " _Deidara!_ "

The combined pressure of Pain’s eerie pond-ripple gaze and Sasori’s dead doll eyes is more than enough to get him to comply. He drops low and forces his bird to do a barrel roll, knocking the two puppets away for an instant and giving himself room to soar up and out of the massive hole that was the ceiling. The puppets make to follow him, but Deidara takes a page out of Onoki’s book and forms a one-handed _Snake_ seal. Earth chakra seals itself to the two puppets, who suddenly plummet like iron butterflies as the force of gravity drags them back down to Earth, knocking Chiyo to her knees with the sudden pull against her chakra strings.

Once he’s past the hole’s edge, Deidara breaks his hold on the puppets and does a quick circle of the battlefield to take stock of the shit show this day has become. While Sasuke is running for the Gedo Statue and Pain is trying to close it’s hands around the jinchūriki, Sasori is whipping out a summoning scroll and Chiyo is redirecting one of her puppets to intercept him. Out on the river, a silver haired and badly battered Leaf shinobi is dragging himself by his arms over the rubble remains of the boulder gate. Most concerning is the strange red chakra bubbling up from the cracks in the rubble like water from a deep sea vent.

Deidara takes one look and decides _that_ is _definitely_ a later problem.

His hand spits the tiny lump of clay back out, having molded it into a little bird built for speed and accuracy. This is going to cut it close, but the statue looks sturdy, Pain will _probably_ forgive him. Probably. Deidara throws the bird like a dart and it transforms in midair, growing to it’s full size and flying straight for Sasuke’s back. Deidara catches from the corner of his eye Chiyo’s male puppet in the midst of a close quarters fight with Sasori suddenly going limp and falling in a rattling heap, the moment before chakra strings grab his bird out of the air, swing it around, and send it flying back the way it came. Her female puppet’s jaw drops open and fires a kunai with pinpoint accuracy to intercept the bird in midair.

Deidara bites out a quick "Ah _fuck_ " before making his mount dive back down. The puppet’s kunai hits the bird, detonating it fifteen feet above Deidara. The aftershock of the explosion gives Deidara a speed boost, one he was only half-anticipating, but embraces. Because coming in hard and fast is kind of his _thing._ He wheels around Chiyo’s female puppet as she comes back up to engage him again, aiming for the lifeless male puppet and opening his bird’s broken beak. Chiyo takes the bait, a chakra string firing out from her free hand for the male puppet.

Deidara tears a handful of clay off his bird’s back and chews it up in his palm. His palm spits out three itsy bitsy clay spiders in short order and Deidara sends them crawling down the bird’s open beak. The instant before the bird can swallow the puppet, Chiyo yanks it up and away and Deidara’s clay spiders leap from the bird to the puppet, burying themselves in the ruff around the puppet’s neck. Chiyo’s gonna be in for a nasty surprise in a bit, but like any good surprise party, you have to act like there’s nothing planned.

So Deidara groans, "Oh _come on,_ you get to take my toys but I don’t get to take yours?! _So_ not fair, hm!"

Sasori’s voice is quite a bit less intimidating when he’s outside Hiruko, but no less authoritative; "Stop screwing around and get the Uchiha!"

Deidara glances back just in time to see Sasuke leaping for the Gedo Statue’s hands. There’s only a five foot gap between them now, but Sasuke catches himself where the statue’s pinkies meet it’s palms. He skids down until he’s almost at the wrists, cutting his momentum off with a burst of chakra to his palms and soles. The muscles in Sasuke’s back tense up, he grits his teeth, and he pushes _out._ The statue and Sasuke meet each other strength for strength. The statue’s hands come to a grinding halt.

Deidara and Sasori’s eyes meet for an instant. The instant after, they leap into action.

There’s a puff of smoke from Sasori’s summoning scroll, one that Deidara quickly clears with his bird’s wings as he swoops back down towards Sasori and the newly revealed puppet of the Third Kazekage. With one hand Sasori sends the Third Kazekage leaping across the cavern for Chiyo with his poison-tipped claws bared, and with the other hand he lashes five chakra strings to Deidara’s bird. Chiyo reads their strategy in an instant and pulls the female puppet back to guard her while sending the male puppet after Deidara. Deidara forms half a seal, detonating the clay spiders. The male puppet goes up in flames like a pile of dry tinder in the middle of Summer, the fire running up the strings and onto Chiyo’s right hand. Instead of stopping, dropping, or rolling, Chiyo just clenches her jaw. With a _click,_ her right forearm falls out of her sleeve and lands on the ground, the fire consuming it.

While the Third Kazekage and Chiyo’s female puppet trade blows, Sasori swings Deidara’s bird around his head once, twice, and on the third go around he breaks the strings, throwing Deidara at Sasuke like a stone from a sling. Deidara doesn’t need to do anything fancy for this. He just holds his arm out to one side, ready to give this kid the clothesline from Hell–

Sasuke shouts, loud enough to wake the dead, " _Someone grab Gaara before this thing crushes me!_ "

The rubble at the hideout’s entrance explodes with a roar. Something flies over Deidara’s head, red hot like a comet, passing him so quickly he can’t even track it with his scope. It shoots through the goalposts that are the Gedo Statue’s hands, missing Sasuke by an inch, and collides headlong with the One Tail. The two of them roll out of the gap between the statue’s thumbs and land on the ground between it’s arms and it’s chest. For the moment that they’re still, Deidara gets a look at the thing that just fucked up literal years of prep work.

The Nine Tails matches Itachi’s description to the letter, give or take two years of puberty and an outfit change. Oh yeah, and the cloak of bubbling red-orange chakra in the vague shape of the Nine Tailed Fox. That’s also new. The jinchūriki’s head snaps up to reveal red eyes, distended canines, and a face covered in bruises and blood. The Nine Tail uses his mouth as much as his hands to maneuver the One Tail onto his back, then runs almost on all fours back the way he came.

Deidara makes a hairpin U-turn and follows. An heartbeat later there’s the sound of sandals scuffing against earth, then a running chorus of "Shit shit shit shit _shit_ " as Sasuke goes racing after him.

Pain’s voice echoes through the room, rage simmering across every syllable; "Do _not_ let them escape."

There’s a wave of pressure followed by a blast of thick black smoke. Deidara rolls his eyes, fishes a _far_ less artistically inspired but serviceable exploding tag attached to a kunai from his weapon pouch, and throws it over his shoulder. The blast gives him another, much less powerful boost, and forces the smoke out through the hole in the roof. The smoke clears to reveal the Nine Tails, already halfway across the cavern with no signs of slowing down.

Deidara also has a clear view of Chiyo and Sasori’s battle, or really the proxy battle between the puppets. Chiyo is cowering behind her female puppet’s chakra shield as she inches her way closer to the exit. The puppet’s movements are stiff and sluggish, and Deidara doesn’t have to guess why. The Third Kazekage is surrounded by a halo of iron sand, no doubt Sasori left grains behind to gum up the puppet’s works. Sasori keeps pushing, wearing away at the chakra shield with the puppet’s hidden blades and iron sand to force the puppet closer and closer to Chiyo. The fight has barely begun and Chiyo’s face is pale beneath a sheen of sweat, her hand shaking with the effort of keeping her puppet in the fight. This is a war of attrition, and those are wars the elderly can’t win.

Sasuke’s chant of " _Shit shit shit fuck shit god fucking damn it I’m so fucking stupid–_ " suddenly ratchets up in volume and in speed. He suddenly appears just past Deidara, catching up to then overtaking him in the same breath. And he’s apparently not lying about being a fucking idiot, because instead of swerving _around_ the fight between two of the greatest puppet masters in history, he dives _right_ into the center of it. Sasuke rolls to a crouch between Chiyo’s puppet and the Third Kazekage, whirls to his feet, and spits a massive fireball directly at the Third Kazekage.

See, that’s the thing about human puppets. If normal puppets made from lacquered wood are piles of dry kindling, human puppets– with their dried out hair, papery skin, and protective layer of enough preservative chemicals to make a man immortal– are that same pile of kindling except it’s been doused in kerosene. Sasori bites out a word in a language Deidara doesn’t speak that nevertheless sounds horribly foul. His reflexes take over and he’s yanking the puppet back like a parent grabbing their child the instant before they can fall into white water rapids. The iron sand swerves away from Chiyo’s puppet to form a shield, blocking the worst of the flames as well as Sasori’s vision.

Sasuke takes advantage of the cover to dart off course, grab Chiyo around the waist abruptly enough to make _her_ spit that same foreign curse, throw her over one shoulder and keep running for the exit. Chiyo presses her lips tightly together, then cuts the strings connecting her hand to the female puppet. The puppet falls limp and Sasuke gains a burst of momentum from the literal weight taken off his shoulders. Sasori pauses for a moment, eyes lingering on the female puppet, before shaking his head back into the game.

Deidara feels the chakra strings latch onto the underside of his bird before he sees them. The bird lurches down to one side as Sasori reels himself in, using his momentum to swing all the way around the bird, grab Deidara’s collar, and come to a stop on the bird’s back. Deidara can hear the joints in his other hand clicking away as he makes the Third Kazekage "run" even with them. Fat lot of good it’ll do– It’s still a hunk of wood and metal with a whole tub of iron shavings in it’s stomach. Deidara can _feel_ it slowing them down like a parachute made of lead.

"After them," Sasori snaps, "Double time!"

Deidara rolls the eye behind his scope; "Easier said than done, Sasori my man, easier said than done!"

* * *

Sasuke allows himself a half second’s pause as he and Chiyo tumble over the hideout’s broken threshold to try and get a bead on Naruto. He catches sight of him out of the corner of his left eye. With the cloak of demonic chakra giving his stamina a boost and extending his reach, he has a commanding lead of over a hundred and twenty feet as he bounds South along the quickly drying riverbed. Gaara is on his back, breathing, but not moving. Before Sasuke can give into his impulses and start running after him, a hand closes around his ankle. Sasuke looks down to lock eyes with a bloodsoaked, waterlogged Kakashi.

"Sasuke," Kakashi huffs, voice raw like he’s been screaming for hours, "When this mission is over, we are going to have a _talk._ "

Sasuke grimaces and hauls Kakashi up onto his other shoulder; "Yeah, I had a feeling."

From the corner of his ear Sasuke hears Sasori shout, "After them, double time!"

Sasuke is back on the move before he can blink. Sasuke conserves chakra by moving in great leaps, short bursts rather than a steady stream. Over short distances he may have been able to outrun that clay bird, but there’s no telling how long this chase is going to go for. Once he’s put thirty feet between himself and the hideout, Sasuke angles his head up and whistles, high and sharp as he can.

There’s a moment where Sasuke’s heart doesn’t beat. All he can do is strain his eyes in an attempt to pick out the one silhouette he wants to see in the pockets of sky hidden among the tight, tall trees.

In a burst of leaves and feathers, Garuda punches through the canopy. The great hawk keeps his wings and legs tucked tight against his body like a guided missile until he’s just above Sasuke’s head. Before he can hit the ground beak-first his wings spread wide, catching the wind and letting him coast at a steady speed.

Sasuke can’t help a fierce grin; "Good bird!"

Sasuke tosses Kakashi up to Garuda, who catches him in one claw with only a shocked yelp of protest from the thoroughly battered jōnin. Sasuke kicks off the ravine wall and lands on Garuda’s back, finally letting Chiyo down. He chances a glance over his shoulder. Deidara and Sasori are cruising fifteen feet back and ten feet up, with Sasori’s puppet bounding between the ravine walls. Iron sand is streaming from the puppet’s mouth and forming into wicked spikes, circling the puppet’s head like a crown of thorns.

Chiyo interrupts Sasuke’s train of thought; " _Now_ what are we supposed to do?! We’ve thrown Gaara from one kidnapper’s hands to another!"

Sasuke grits his teeth; "Everything I said before about throwing you off if you don’t have anything helpful to stay still applies, you know! Kakashi, what’s going on with Naruto?!"

"Naruto got caught in the blast and went under the rubble," Kakashi calls, "He was already having trouble fighting off the Nine Tails’ influence, the shock and intensity of his injuries must have broken his concentration!"

Sasuke’s eyes go wide; "You mean _I did this to him?!_ "

"Yes and no, beat yourself up about it later," Kakashi snaps, " _Right now_ I _do_ have a way to help him, but it has to be soon!"

Sasuke’s eyes track the distance between them and Naruto. Garuda’s wings have made _some_ progress towards closing the gap, but not by much. Up ahead the ravine is criss-crossed with massive roots. Naruto’s cloaked appendages are stretching out and swinging on the roots like monkey bars, giving him extra kicks of momentum. Before Sasuke can start drafting a strategy, there’s the sound of rattling wood and metal-on-metal. Sasuke lets his reflexes take over and taps the bottom of Garuda’s neck, the bird diving beneath a bevy of iron sand spikes that swerve in midair to catch them on the backswing. Garuda whirls out of the way, but the spikes don’t pull back, instead hovering around them like iron hornets.

Sasuke shouts, "Someone needs to hold these guys off!"

Kakashi’s voice is starting to take on a frantic edge; "It’ll have to be me, I can’t move my legs right now so I can’t chase Naruto–!"

"But aren’t _you_ the one with the thing that can _help_ Naruto?!"

"I _am_ but–!"

Chiyo clicks her tongue against her teeth; "Enough of this 'either or' nonsense! Sasuke, you stay on Garuda and hold off the Akatsuki! I can puppeteer Kakashi!"

Sasuke shoots an incredulous look over his shoulder; "You _can?_ "

Chiyo’s grin is wan and thin, but definitely smug; "Of _course_ I can! Any self-respecting shinobi should know how to _make_ a weapon if they can’t find one! Now get out of my way, I need you covering my back!"

Sasuke and Chiyo scramble around each other, somehow managing to switch places without falling off the bird. Sasuke rises to a crouch, keeping a hand on Garuda’s back to keep himself steady, and takes stock of his opponents. They’re sharp, and with their focus narrowed down by the ravine and Garuda Sasuke can’t count on them having to split it and leaving gaps for them to slip through like in the hideout. He needs something big, and it needs to be ready the instant they send Kakashi off towards Naruto.

Sasuke pushes a breath out through his nose; "Garuda, on the count of three, drop Kakashi!"

Kakashi’s " _What?!_ " is drowned out by Sasuke counting, "One, two, _three!_ "

Garuda releases Kakashi. Chiyo lets him drop five feet before five strings shoot out from her remaining hand and attach to Kakashi’s arms, legs, and head. The strings catch him in midair where he hangs for a moment, limp, before leaping after Naruto. With the nimble movements of Chiyo’s fingers Kakashi moves with the grace of a dancer between the ravine walls and the roots, making quick and steady work of the gap between him and his target. Sasori clenches his jaw and strikes in two directions, sending a torrent of iron sand after Kakashi while the Third Kazekage dives toward Sasuke.

Sasuke’s hands flash through _Ox Rabbit Tiger._ One goes to his mouth and the other into his weapon pouch. He spits a blizzard of flaming shuriken at the Third Kazekage. To Sasuke’s shock, the shuriken seem to home in on the Third Kazekage, picking up a boost of speed as they lock on. Sasori’s odd dead eyes go wide. The iron sand drops out of the sky and the shuriken lose their sense of direction. The Third Kazekage swerves out of the way of the Phoenix Flower and drags the clay bird along with it. Deidara bites back a swear at the sudden jerk and fights to right the bird.

Sasuke lets Sasori have a moment to reorient his puppet. He needs that moment to think.

He already knows fire’s bad for puppets, that would’ve been easy to guess before Sasori dropped everything to keep his puppet from going up in flames. But the shuriken being attracted to the puppet is new. And Sasori’s dodge confirmed it has something to do with the iron sand. It’s all about moving metal. What makes metal move? What draws metal towards things? Magnets. It _has_ to be magnets, or some kind of magnetic kekkei genkai, either way it means there’s got to be something inside the puppet generating that magnetic force.

Which means it has a weak point. And he has to force it out into the open if he wants that puppet gone for good.

Sasuke reaches into his weapon pouch and comes out with senbon, kunai, and shuriken between each finger. He kneads chakra in his stomach, sends it up his arms, and sets the weapons alight. He flings them all at the puppet and Sasori makes it dance, moving through the air like a fish through water to avoid the flames. Sasuke doesn’t cut him any more slack. He continues the assault, throwing flaming tool after tool, the fire eating up the oxygen and not giving Sasori room to breathe. Sasori’s smooth face is starting to twist, minutely as it can, into a mask of rage.

From the corner of his eye, Sasuke chances a glance back at Kakashi. Chiyo’s guidance has nearly closed the gap, with Kakashi leaping and swinging off the massive roots quicker than Naruto can avoid him. Naruto’s cloak is slowly spreading, a second tail waving half-formed in the air next to the first one. Kakashi’s _almost_ there, he just–

Iron sand rises up from below and races back, towards Sasori. Sasuke bites out a swear and fires off another Phoenix Flower. The shuriken dart through the air like hummingbirds but the iron sand is faster, flowing into a wide, flat disc to block the projectiles and send them bouncing harmlessly down to the riverbed. Sasori draws more and more iron sand out of the puppet’s mouth, forming it up into an iron pyramid so large it’s corners scrape the edges of the ravine. For a moment, all Sasuke can do is stare. A medical ninja is never supposed to get hit, but Sasuke’s pretty sure he’s not gonna have much choice in the matter if Sasori throws that thing at them.

The Third Kazekage’s robe slips down one shoulder and a panel on the puppet’s chest opens, revealing a metal apparatus where the real man’s heart would have been. With the sound of whirring electricity, the device starts to glow. Sasuke’s eyes go wide– _There!_ He draws his last kunai, coats it in fire, and throws it with a speed and accuracy bolstered by the sharingan. Once it’s within thirty feet of the puppet, the kunai abruptly changes direction, flying _back_ the way it came. Sasuke bites his tongue and jukes out of the way, his own chakra singing his cheek. Fucking _magnets_ – They don’t _just_ attract, they can repel too, and Sasori has that under tight control.

The iron pyramid starts to _spin_ , faster and faster until it resembles the head of a massive drill. Sasori draws his fingers together into a point, then thrusts it forward.

Sasuke uses that instant to shout, " _EVERYONE, DIVE!_ "

Garuda swoops down, diving beneath outstretched roots. Sasuke and Chiyo crouch so low their faces are almost buried in Garuda’s feathers. Chiyo pulls Kakashi gracelessly straight down, flinging him out of the way like a rag doll. The iron pyramid thunders over their heads, mere inches the difference between their survival and getting run through. As it passes over him Sasuke can feel the hairs on his arms and neck standing on end, the tell-tale static pull of Lightning chakra.

Sasuke looks frantically over his shoulder to Naruto, who is doing the same just in time to catch sight of the iron pyramid. He lets out a snarl more annoyed than angry and takes Gaara’s sleeves in his mouth so he can let go of his legs. He lands on one of the roots and turns to face the iron pyramid head on. _Naruto_ doesn’t catch the iron pyramid, but the chakra claws of his cloak do. The pyramid’s momentum pulls them back, stretching the arms like they’re made of taffy, but Naruto holds fast. With a barely muffled roar, Naruto throws the iron pyramid back the way it came.

A million voices shout over each other in discordant harmony.

Kakashi from below, "He’s standing still, now’s our chance! Get me up there!"

Deidara from behind, "Don’t let that fucking thing hit us Sasori!"

Sasori from even _further_ behind, "What kind of amateur do you take me for?!"

Chiyo at his back, "You have an opening! Take it!"

And Sasuke, drawing the tantō from it’s sheath, snapping, "On it!"

Everyone moves at once.

Chiyo makes Kakashi fly up the ravine walls and swing around the outstretched roots. Naruto catches sight of him and, unable to tell friend from foe, strikes for him with the long reach of his chakra cloak. Deidara makes the clay bird dive down. Sasori’s fingers work at a break-knuckle pace, drawing the Third Kazekage back and reversing the polarity of the magnet, freezing the iron pyramid in midair. Sasuke’s hand bursts into a ball of chirping lightning, the bolts running down to cover the blade of the tantō.

With Chiyo’s help Kakashi darts effortlessly around Naruto’s strikes, closing the distance between them in moments. Chiyo breaks the string on his left arm. Deidara tears a piece of clay off the bird’s back. With Sasori’s guidance the iron pyramid starts to change shape. Sasuke’s sharingan spins and he channels the excess chakra into one chakra string attached to the pommel of the tantō.

Kakashi’s hand darts into his flak jacket and comes back out holding a paper seal. Chiyo prays to spirits of wind and war and victory. Deidara swears under his breath. The iron pyramid shifts into a ball of spikes, like a sea urchin made from tree branches. Sasuke throws the tantō, aiming for the magnetic apparatus in the Third Kazekage’s chest.

Kakashi slaps the seal on the center of Naruto’s headband. Sasuke’s tantō hits it’s target.

The Third Kazekage’s body convulses as lightning courses through it’s metal heart, spreading across the mummified surface of it’s body. The iron sand loses it’s shape, the wind carrying it like sand off the crest of a dune. Sasuke pulls his tantō back and shields his eyes to keep out any stray grains. The puppet ignites, flames spreading and turning it into a fireball.

Sasori’s jaw clenches and he snarls, "That was one of my _favorite pieces!_ But if you’re so keen on taking it from me, then here, _take it!_ "

Sasori swings the puppet around and around, faster and faster. The instant before the fire can spread all the way down the strings and reach Sasori’s hands, he cuts the strings mid-swing. The flaming puppet flies like a bolide through the air, straight for Garuda. The bird suddenly drops another five feet in the air, beating it’s wings twice as hard to stay aloft. Like it all of a sudden got heavier.

Naruto’s voice crows over the rushing wind, "Nah, you can keep it!"

Sasuke’s eyes whip down to see Naruto swinging around Garuda’s left flank, one chakra string tethering him to Chiyo. While Naruto runs through _Dog Horse Bird,_ Sasuke cranes his neck down and around. Clutched tightly in Garuda’s claws are Kakashi and Gaara, Kakashi staring wild-eyed at the chaos above and Gaara still dead to the world.

Naruto kicks off the ravine wall, brings his hands up to his mouth, and fires off a spiraling gust of wind. It hits both the flaming puppet and Deidara’s bird, sending them all tumbling end over end back up the ravine. The last thing Sasuke sees before they’re pushed out of his visual range is Deidara fighting to wrest back control of the bird and Sasori wrapping them to the bird with chakra strings with one hand while throwing the other straight up. But after an instant, they’re gone, Chiyo is groaning in pain, the string holding Naruto is snapping, and Naruto is falling out of the sky.

Sasuke lets out an undignified yelp. His sharingan spins and he fires off chakra strings, clumsily wrapping them all around Naruto’s arm. Naruto grits his teeth in a wince as his fall comes to a jerky, undignified stop. The sudden weight tethered to his arm almost pulls Sasuke off his feet, but he quickly redirects the excess chakra down into his soles to catch himself. Naruto is now being dragged behind Garuda, flapping in the air like a flag, but at least he’s not falling.

Sasuke cringes and calls, "You alright?!"

Naruto forms a painful thumbs up with his other hand; "You dropped a bunch of rocks on me and dislocated my shoulder! I’m doing great!"

Sasuke’s laugh is high and warbling; "Yeah, sorry! I thought you were gonna be smart and dodge, but you _are_ a dumbass–"

Naruto cracks a grin that’s as fond as it is ferocious; "And _I thought_ you were gonna be nice and not make moves that could get your teammates killed, but you _are_ a jackass–"

Chiyo turns to put her hand on Sasuke’s shoulder, gasping, "Garuda can’t– This is too many people, he’s weighed down, we have to land!"

Kakashi calls from beneath them, "We can’t, they could still be following us! We have to get more distance, throw them off our trail!"

Garuda gives his input by suddenly dipping down, crying out in pain, then flapping his wings as fast as he can to right himself.

Naruto blinks a few times, then says, "Oh, is that all? I’ve got you!"

Naruto pulls his hands together and zips through _Dog Boar Ram_. Sasuke almost gets pulled off his feet again as, in a puff of smoke, one hundred and twelve pounds of Naruto transforms into a single kunai. Sasuke reels Naruto-the-Kunai in as Garuda pushes up, past the ravine’s edge and out through the canopy. Garuda course-corrects, catching a Western wind and flying for the mountains separating the Land of Rivers from the Land of Wind.

Sasuke keeps his eyes on the horizon behind them. He stays coiled like a spring, ready to leap into action the second Deidara’s bird pops out through the trees. It doesn’t. For fifteen minutes, there’s nothing but the wide blue sky and the sound of rushing wind.

The instant Sasuke starts to relax, the peace is torn in two by Gaara screaming at the top of his lungs.

Garuda rocks beneath Sasuke’s feet. A massive claw formed from sand and covered in deep black markings rears up from beneath the bird and rakes through it’s right wing. Another appendage, so twisted and misshapen that’s all Sasuke can call it, shreds Garuda’s left flank. The air fills with blood and feathers and sand as Gaara shrieks in agony and these pieces of Shukaku lash out in all directions. Claws grow off of claws, reaching past the bird to swipe blindly at Sasuke and Chiyo.

Sasuke throws himself between the blows and Chiyo as he shouts, "What’s going on down there, Kakashi?!"

Kakashi shouts back, "I don’t _know,_ the sand is coming out _through Gaara’s skin, it–!_ "

One of the appendages pierces through the bottom of Garuda’s neck. The bird’s screech is choked with blood. It cuts off with a burst of smoke, and in an instant, there is nothing beneath Sasuke’s feet.

The sudden loss of momentum sends them all scattering in the air like bones thrown by a fortune teller. Sasuke gets an instant to glimpse Gaara, writhing in midair with sand forcing it’s way out through his pores and whipping around him like a localized sandstorm. The canopy is quickly rising to meet them and Sasuke has run out of quick and clever ideas. The terrified scream bouncing around in his mind rips it’s way out of his mouth.

There’s another burst of smoke and Naruto is no longer a kunai but Naruto again. He twists in midair and throws both hands out at different angles, one behind him and the other out toward the rest of the group. Sasuke can see him draw up absolutely too much chakra from his stomach, knead it around his heart, and come out of his hands as gales of hot wind. The force of the wind blows them all towards a sizable clearing in the dense forest, but they’re still falling. They’re falling even _faster_ than before, poised to hit the ground like mortar bombs.

Sasuke only has time to close his eyes. This is gonna _hurt._

* * *

Kakashi couldn’t tell you what hitting the clearing ground was like. That moment is gone, disappearing the instant Kakashi’s head bounced _hard_ against the dirt.

He _can_ tell you what it was like to come back to consciousness, barely ten seconds later, covered in blood and dust and lying in the middle of the kind of crater a meteorite leaves when it makes it all the way down to Earth. Kakashi attempts to bring himself up to hands and knees, but can only get as far as hands. The instant he tries to put weight on his knees a pain so sharp and intense it forces him to dry heave runs up his spine. His knees give out, and Kakashi only barely catches himself on his elbows.

He takes a few shuddering breaths and takes stock of the clearing. Sasuke and Naruto seem to have bounced and rolled all the way to the opposite edge. Naruto is swaying to his feet, shaking himself back to the world and popping his shoulder back into it’s socket, but thanks to his 'tenant' the worst he looks is dazed. Sasuke’s skin is suffused with a cyan glow quickly closing all the cuts and bruises the landing left him with, but he winces hard when he tries to put weight on his left leg.

Chiyo is only a few yards away from Kakashi. She’s conscious, but only upright on one elbow. Her face is white with pain as her hip juts out at a strange angle. And in the clearing’s center is Gaara, thrashing under the power of the pieces of Shukaku forcing their way out of his body by whatever means are necessary. They’re tearing their way out through his clothes and sand armor, blood mixing with the sand as they stretch his pores and chakra points wider than they were ever meant to stretch. Gaara’s eyes have rolled into the back of his head and he’s only conscious enough, only _coherent_ enough to scream the scream of a wounded animal trying to rip it’s way out of a trap even if it leaves it’s leg behind.

Kakashi pushes himself up and shouts over Gaara, "Naruto! Try and hold Gaara down! Sasuke! Triage!"

Naruto and Sasuke both blink themselves back to reality before leaping into action. Naruto races in, dodging around Shukaku’s writhing appendages and making it up to Gaara’s shoulders. He lurches over him and presses the whole weight of his upper body down on Gaara’s chest. A few of the appendages rear up and start slashing at Naruto’s back and shoulders, but Naruto grits his teeth and holds fast against the assault.

Sasuke darts over to Chiyo, his limp disappearing as he runs and channels healing chakra down his left leg. Once he’s at her side he tears his gloves off with his teeth and channels healing chakra into her broken hip with one hand while the other carefully resets the bone. Chiyo hisses in pain and Kakashi can catch Sasuke whispering a quick apology. After nearly a full minute, Sasuke pulls his hands away and helps Chiyo shudder up to her feet. She’s stable, but she certainly isn’t steady.

Kakashi wags his head towards Gaara and barks to her, "Go! Help Naruto!"

Chiyo shoots him a troubled look, but complies. She throws her one hand out wide, five chakra strings lashing to the base of five of Shukaku’s appendages and wrapping tight around them. She closes her hand into a fist and pulls it back. The strings tighten around the appendages, cutting them off at the root. The appendages don’t dissolve into sand, instead wriggling over to each other and forming up into a lump of warped Shukaku-flesh. Kakashi’s sharingan picks out several spots on Gaara’s body where yet more chakra is bubbling up towards the surface. Chiyo closes the distance and wraps chakra strings around Gaara, pinning his arms to his sides.

Sasuke makes it over to Kakashi’s side. He throws one of Kakashi’s arms over his shoulders and brings his other hand around to the base of Kakashi’s spine, channelling healing chakra up and down the length of it. He drags Kakashi over to Gaara, and as they move Kakashi can feel the pain in his legs abating, little by little.

"Just get me fixed enough to keep myself upright," Kakashi says, "I get the feeling Gaara’s gonna need more of your chakra."

Sasuke purses his lips, but nods. By the time they make it to Gaara’s side Sasuke’s able to set Kakashi down on his knees. It’s still painful, but Kakashi had his eye ripped out at twelve. This is only half as bad. Sasuke comes around on Gaara’s other side, opposite Naruto, and channels chakra down his arms. His hands close over Gaara’s arm and shoulder like iron clamps, holding him tightly in place and allowing Naruto to pull back a bit.

Chiyo looks to Naruto and says, "Get ready. I need to check his seal, and I’ll have to break the strings to do it."

Kakashi’s brow furrows as he quickly puts the pieces together; "You were the one who sealed Shukaku in him in the first place, weren’t you."

Chiyo meets his eyes for a moment. She just nods. Naruto’s jaw clenches shut and he swallows hard. Chiyo breaks the strings and Gaara’s arms blindly flail outwards, but Naruto and Sasuke tamp them down. Chiyo removes what’s left of Gaara’s vest, opens his coat, and pulls his chain shirt up to reveal a broken mandala made from the same vein-like markings on Shukaku’s body in the center of Gaara’s chest. A third of the seal’s design is gone, replaced with patches of bloodied skin with sand bubbling up from beneath and forming up into more pieces of Shukaku.

Chiyo clicks her tongue against her teeth; "It’s worse than I thought. The Akatsuki have torn part of Shukaku out of Gaara and broken the seal!"

Sasuke jerks against another thrash from Gaara; "So what’s left of Shukaku’s trying to get out?!"

"Yes, desperately," Chiyo replies, "The damage and trauma must be extensive if Shukaku’s willing to tear it’s host apart to get free!"

Naruto blinks rapidly; "Wait, you mean Shukaku’s _scared?_ "

"For it’s life, perhaps," Chiyo spits, glaring at one of the appendages as it lashes out towards her and she ducks out of it’s way, "If it forces it’s way out like this it will rip Gaara to pieces at best, cannibalize him at worst!"

Kakashi runs a hand through his hair, nails scraping along his scalp; "Can you repair the seal?!"

Chiyo shakes her head; "I set this seal _fifteen years ago,_ and I was following instructions put down by someone long dead! Even if I had a breakthrough, _repairing_ a seal is a completely different matter than putting one down fresh, one that requires time, precision, and concentration! I’m not going to have _any_ of those things while Shukaku is thrashing about like this!"

Kakashi looks to Naruto; "Naruto, could you help her?!"

Naruto shakes his head; "I’ve _never_ seen a seal that looks like this, I dunno where I’d even start!"

Sasuke grits his teeth and grunts, "Why do we need to fix the seal?! It wants out, I say we let it out–!"

Chiyo and Kakashi both snap in perfect unison, " _We can’t!_ "

Chiyo meets Sasuke’s gaze and pins it down; "When a jinchūriki has their tailed beast removed, they die!"

Naruto’s voice cracks as he exclaims, "We _what?!_ "

Chiyo shoots a glare over at Naruto; "You heard me, boy! They die! Not a single jinchūriki in four generations has ever survived their beast being removed, and we are nowhere near equipped to pull off the impossible! Reinforcements are a day and a half away, and by then Shukaku will have devoured him!"

Sasuke is breathing quicker and quicker, coming right up to the edge of hyperventilation; "We leave Shukaku in he dies, we take Shukaku _out_ he dies, we wait for help to come he dies, _what the fuck are we supposed to do?!_ "

Naruto is chewing on his lip, muttering to himself, "Maybe if we calm Shukaku down, maybe–!"

Chiyo’s voice goes shrill; "There’s no calming a _monster,_ boy! You should know that better than anyone here!"

Naruto’s glare is pure poison as he snaps, "You don’t know anything about me, old lady!"

Sasuke growls through his teeth, "Naruto, don’t, we can’t be–!"

"You don’t get to talk right now, if you hadn’t gone on ahead–!"

"I would’ve traded Kankuro’s life for Gaara’s, and we _don’t trade lives!_ "

"Ha! You say that only because you’ve never had to! Of course in the darkest hour Leaf 'discipline' shows it’s true colors–!"

Kakashi thunders over them all, " _ENOUGH!_ "

All three of them snap their jaws shut.

"Now _listen to me!_ We are _not_ giving up on Gaara, because we _are_ equipped to pull off the impossible," Kakashi continues, "But that’s going to require precision and focus, so _all of you_ need to _calm the fuck down_ right now! We are ninja, each and every one of us! That means we don’t cave under pressure, we follow the orders we’re given, and the mission isn’t over until everyone’s dead! _Get me?!_ "

Everyone’s eyes drop to Gaara’s writhing form, Shukaku’s appendages thrashing about like the tentacles of a beached octopus. They nod and mutter their assent. Morale’s still low, but it’s not dead. Kakashi shakes his head. You work with what you’ve got.

"Alright," he looks to Chiyo, "Jinchūriki die when their tailed beast is removed, we’ve got that. _How_ does that kill them, exactly?"

Chiyo frowns and replies, "When a jinchūriki has been one since birth, their chakra slowly adapts to and melds with that of the tailed beast. The beast and the host’s chakra supply are one and the same. Removing a tailed beast is, in essence, the same as draining someone of all their chakra all at once. They die as much from shock as from chakra exhaustion."

Kakashi nods; "That’s what I thought. Alright. Here’s the plan."

He looks to Chiyo; "If you can, I need you to dismantle what’s left of the seal. That will force all of Shukaku’s parts to come out of one location at a steady rate."

Chiyo’s brows draw together and she sputters, "I–! I-it _can_ be done, but that would–!"

Kakashi looks to Naruto and Sasuke, making them choke on their objections; "Sasuke, Naruto, the two of you need to transfer your chakra into Gaara at the same rate that Shukaku is being siphoned out. Is Katsuyu still with you both?"

The boys’ jackets wriggle in sync, and both pieces of Katsuyu stick their heads out of their pockets; "Yes, I am."

"Good," Kakashi says with a nod, "Katsuyu, you’re going to transfer the chakra out of Naruto. Sasuke, you’ll have to do it yourself."

Sasuke nods, ironing out the tremble in his hands; "Right. I can do that. What about you?"

Kakashi takes a deep breath; "Once Shukaku is out, I can contain it. But I’ll need time to prepare this jutsu, so if the Akatsuki find us–"

Naruto nods and cuts in, "I’ve got you. I’ve still got plenty of chakra, I can give Gaara some and fight at the same time."

Chiyo frowns and murmurs, "I suppose he doesn’t need an entire person’s-worth of chakra, just enough to keep him alive and let his natural reserves regenerate… If they even know _how_ to anymore after having spent so long in a symbiotic relationship with Shukaku…"

Chiyo looks Kakashi in the eye; "Are you sure this will work?"

Kakashi shakes his head; "Not in the slightest. But even if it doesn’t, at least no one can say we didn’t try."

Naruto nods; "It’s like you told us, abandoning your friends makes you worse than trash. We can’t abandon Gaara now!"

Kakashi tucks away how that makes his heart clench with bittersweet pride and just says, "Exactly. Now, let’s get to work."

Everyone springs into action. Sasuke places his piece of Katsuyu on Gaara’s stomach, right over his chakra reserves. She lights up a strange pale violet as the piece with Naruto settles herself on the back of his neck and glows in sync with her other half. Naruto’s eyes go out of focus for a second before he shakes himself back and mutters something about that 'feeling weird as shit'. Sasuke presses down harder on Gaara’s arm and shoulder and his hands glow blue, his chakra moving out of his palms and into Gaara’s chakra network.

Chiyo first retrieves a scroll from her pack and unravels it, summoning from a seal a single puppet’s arm. She shoves the arm up her empty sleeve and, with a _click_ , the fingers spring to life. Two-handed again, Chiyo brings her hands up to the seal and starts a slow trek around the outermost layer. Tiny chakra strings come off the pads of her fingers and attach to the pieces of the seal. With surgical precision, they slowly pull the chakra-infused ink out of Gaara’s skin, where it dissolves into thin air. Kakashi starts gathering chakra and pulling it up to Obito’s eye.

For several minutes everything is tense, if not silent. Gaara is still screaming. He never stopped. His voice is starting to crack and go hoarse. It won’t be long before one of his vocal cords hemorrhages. In the meantime, the flow of Shukaku’s chakra moves up Gaara’s body to the unraveling seal. The surge of Shukaku’s appendages crawl along the ground towards the mass Chiyo severed, molding into it and building it up. The mass grows larger and larger, quickly dwarfing all five of them, and Kakashi can at least take some solace in the fact that this target won’t be particularly difficult to hit.

That solace is broken by the sound of massive wings and Deidara shouting, "Found you, hm!"

All eyes snap up. Deidara’s clay bird is circling the clearing, looking far worse for wear than they had left it. 'Flight feathers' are missing from it’s wings, and it’s body is covered in divots where handfuls of clay were torn away, making the bird overall look ragged and starved as it struggles to stay aloft. Regardless, Deidara is sneering down his nose at them while Sasori is rising to a crouch, unbuttoning the first few buttons of his cloak to reveal an upper body made from carved joints and pieces. Where his heart should be is instead a circle of flesh and veins marked with the kanji for ’scorpion'.

Sasori pulls a scroll from behind his shoulders and hisses, "What a sorry sight you all make. You’re battered, beaten, gasping for breath, and miles away from help."

Naruto grits his teeth and shouts back up at him, "You two don’t look so hot yourselves! And so what if we’re tired?! We still have you outnumbered!"

Sasori grins the grin of a corpse; "I’m about to remedy that."

He unfurls the scroll and opens a panel in his chest, opposite the core of flesh. There’s a burst of smoke big enough to block out the sun. Puppets drop from the smoke and onto the grass like rain. They pour into the clearing, one after another, until a total of one hundred puppets are surrounding the paltry rescue team. At a sight that would prompt lesser ninja to immediately surrender, Naruto just arches a brow.

He scoffs, "That’s all? _Please._ Check this shit out!"

The answering cloud of smoke covers the whole clearing. When it clears, a wall of Narutos stands between them and the puppets, one clone for every puppet summoned. Deidara’s visible eyebrow leaps up. Sasori’s face doesn’t so much as twitch. The real Naruto wobbles on his knees, the chakra surrounding Katsuyu flickering in and out for a few moments, but he steadies himself and puts on a grin.

Naruto points a pair of finger-guns at the puppets and crows, "Sic 'em!"

Sasori grits his teeth and splays both hands out wide in front of him; " _End them._ "

The puppet and clone armies charge towards each other, meeting in a clash of black and orange. The puppets move almost as quickly and gracefully as real ninja, but Naruto fights like a siege engine. His clones slam against the puppets with unrelenting force, overwhelming Sasori’s ability to coordinate a hundred different fighters at once. They take advantage of the cramped quarters, boxing in the puppets and keeping them from slipping out of reach, even meeting them in the air if that’s what it takes.

From the corner of his eye, Kakashi catches Deidara and Sasori muttering to each other. Deidara says something that makes Sasori shut his eyes, heave a sigh, and give him a begrudged nod. Deidara grins wide and forms half a seal. One of Naruto’s clones slams a whirling kick into a hulking puppet’s flank, and the instant his heel connects the puppet explodes in a burst of force and fire. The clone goes up in flames and disperses. The force and heat of the explosion knocks several more clones onto their heels, just in time for the four puppets in the blast zone to explode in the same fashion. It’s a deadly chain reaction that spreads through the crowd like wildfire, kicking up dirt and grass and filling the air with deafening noise.

Kakashi glances over to Sasuke, the real Naruto, and Chiyo. Chiyo is gritting her teeth, her hands trembling like they’re caught in a windstorm. Sasuke has his eyes shut tight and his shoulders bunched up almost to his ears. Shukaku’s chakra is still growing, rising above the crowd of puppets and clones and threatening to spread out into the melee. It’s shape remains a writhing mass of pieces, with tails and claws whipping out then withdrawing, eyes and jaws opening then shutting. Kakashi can hear, below the din of the explosions, a guttural voice wailing in harmony with Gaara.

Kakashi shouts, as loud as he can, "Naruto! Push the puppets back!"

Naruto’s face scrunches up in confusion, and while Kakashi can’t _hear_ him he can read his lips; " _What?! You want me to do what?! I can’t– It’s too loud, sensei!_ "

Kakashi rolls his eyes and, far too exhausted for proper hand signals, just mimes shoving something.

Naruto understands perfectly. The remaining clones fall back, forming as tight a ring as they can. They all run through signs, take deep breaths, and blow out whirling gusts of wind. A handful of puppets explode from the force of the initial impact, the Wind chakra fueling the flames and lighting patches of grass on fire. While the flames spread, the puppets flail in the wind like the rods of a wind chime. Naruto doubles over again. The flow of chakra from him to Gaara sputters in and out like a dying candle.

Kakashi forces his eyes to focus on a spot just above Shukaku’s mass. Victory isn’t likely, but they don’t need victory. They just need to last a few moments longer.

Chiyo pushes through the noise, through the debris and the strain, and pulls up the last character in the direct center of the seal.

Howling wind and shredding sand heralds the last burst of Shukaku’s chakra. It flows out from Gaara’s chest and joins the writhing mass, bringing it up to it’s full height of thirty feet. Sasori's mouth flips into a grin. The strings leading from his chest to his puppets snap. The puppets scatter into the woods, the wind from Naruto’s clones tossing them aside like the lifeless dolls they are. Sasori points with all ten fingers at Shukaku, then crosses his arms in an 'X' and clenches his hands into tight fists.

He’s fast. But Kakashi has the sharingan. He knew what Sasori was going to do the instant before he did.

"Alright, let’s do this," Kakashi snarls, " _Kamui!_ "

Like punching a hole in the sky, a dark spot the size of Kakashi’s head appears slightly off-center a foot above Shukaku’s mass. Kakashi pictures a box, thirty feet tall, thirty feet wide, and thirty feet deep, bounding in the mass. He releases all the chakra he’s been building up. The dark spot starts to distort space in that thirty foot cube, pulling everything inside it up towards the spot. Sand siphons off of Shukaku, up to the spot, and disappears inside it. Shukaku’s pained roars take on a panicked edge and claws and teeth grasp at the ground, trying desperately to pull itself away. The ground beneath it grinds up and dissolves into sand that Shukaku pulls up into itself in an attempt to replace what it’s losing.

Sasori’s jaw makes a wooden clacking sound. He fires off one hundred and ten chakra strings, Deidara’s bird flying in wide but quick loops so they can wrap all the way around Shukaku. Sasori jolts forward, the force of Kamui pulling on the strings and nearly yanking him off the bird. Deidara throws his hand back and grabs Sasori around the elbow. It keeps him on the bird, but Kamui is still pulling them in, so Deidara forces the bird to flap it’s wings as hard as it can to pull them in the other direction. Shukaku’s lower half drags along the ground after them, it’s flailing limbs smashing puppets and dispersing clones.

Kakashi focuses as hard as he can on Kamui. It pulls more and more mass off of Shukaku and into it’s fathomless darkness, but Sasori is making slow but steady progress, dragging more and more of it out of the area of effect. Sweat is pouring down Kakashi’s forehead, his eye aches like he’s been staring at a bright light for hours on end, and he’s clenching his teeth hard enough to crack them. He wants to bark more orders but he can’t afford to take his attention off of Kamui, not for a second, not if he wants to deny the Akatsuki their prize.

Ten chakra strings wrap around Shukaku from it’s other side, grabbing hold of it just above Sasori’s strings and pulling taut. From the corner of his eye Kakashi spies Chiyo, almost on her stomach as she fights against the strength of Sasori’s hold. Her fingers, wrists, arms are all being pulled as straight as they can go, nearly out of their sockets. Shukaku slows down by inches, but inches aren’t enough. Chiyo is being dragged after him, her knees digging furrows in the dirt.

Sasori’s face twists into a snarl and he shouts, "Why won’t you just roll over and _die,_ you _pathetic old woman?!_ "

Chiyo fires back through grit teeth, "I may not be able to defeat you, but even if it’s the last thing I do, I _will stop you!_ "

The strings coming from Chiyo’s left hand suddenly widen out into ropes as Sasuke appears on her left, takes her arm, and sends his chakra surging down into the strings. Sasuke digs his heels in, his strength rooting him to the spot and slowing Shukaku’s movement to a crawl. Chiyo spares Sasuke a wide-eyed look over her shoulder. Sasuke doesn’t return it. His eyes are focused on the black hole pulling Shukaku up into the darkness.

Deidara grits his teeth and spits something under his breath. The hand on Sasori’s elbow lights up with chakra that races through his body and into his strings. The bird wobbles in the air, but Sasori’s strings thicken and tighten. The ground Sasuke gained them quickly disappears as Sasori and Deidara yank Shukaku another five feet out of the cube. Sasuke and Chiyo skid along the ground, drawing closer and closer to the area of effect. The edges of Chiyo’s fingers are starting to flicker as she brushes close to the spatial distortion.

"Come on, face it," Deidara jeers, "You’re all running on fumes! You can’t outlast us and you can’t outstrength us! Just give up, it’ll be less humiliating if you do, hm!"

"Fuck that! We never give up and we never quit, that’s our ninja way! Believe it!"

Naruto appears on Chiyo’s other side. He takes her right arm, the five chakra strings at the ends of her fingers lighting up with bright orange chakra like they’ve been set aflame. Naruto nearly falls to one knee. They’re able to gain back some ground, but only a few centimeters. Naruto and Sasuke each put one arm around Chiyo’s middle and try to pull her back, but only succeed in nearly losing their balance.

Kakashi lurches down to hands and knees. The strain in his eye has spread to his whole head. His skull feels like it’s about to split in half. Kamui has warped maybe a fifth of Shukaku’s mass away. That’s nowhere near enough. They’re not going to make it.

Kakashi whispers through harsh breaths, "Sorry, Obito. Looks like I squandered your gift."

* * *

Two years ago, Gaara learned pain.

He learned the stinging, lancing pain of a blade splitting sensitive skin when you aren’t expecting it, the deep throbbing pain of a stab to the shoulder that courses down your arm and leaves it stiff for days, the burn of explosive tags, the rattling shock of a head butt, and the ache of healing that stays with you for weeks even after everything has stopped bleeding.

Horrifying as it was in the moment, he would learn that pain was survivable. It was something you could adapt to. It was something that he learned not to fear.

And now, two years later, he is learning agony.

He’s learning the ripping, shredding, _stretching_ agony of the thing inside you trying to physically force it’s way out like oil welling to the surface, destroying or consuming whatever flesh lies in it’s way. He’s learning the frenzied, anguished, feral agony of that thing’s fear for it’s life overpowering his conscious mind and filling it only with that same all-consuming need to be _free,_ forcing him to scream until flecks of blood fly out of his open mouth. He’s learning the agony of being hollowed out like a gourd as that thing flees and takes all his chakra with it, leaving him alone to die.

But he isn’t alone for long. At the same rate that Shukaku is fleeing, two presences rush in to fill the gaps.

One is cool but not cold, in fact it burns with lightning and fire and a passion so intense that it allows them to think only in extremes. It is those extremes Gaara feels, hands wrapping possessively around his shoulder and snarling that _they_ might have taken Her and Them but they won’t take this one. Like a dragon, it gathers it’s hoard and guards it with tooth and claw and will die before giving even one piece of it up.

The other is warm like the air downwind from a fire, carrying sparks and burning the lungs. There is passion here, but it’s a mask, a shield behind which a fear both paralyzing and galvanizing hides. It’s empathy is caustic, it takes Gaara’s pain into itself and replaces it with it’s own. A beast claws and bites at a prison within them, too, and if they keep Gaara together that means they won’t be torn to pieces by their own parasite.

Their chakra settles in his chakra network, flowing along the paths that Shukaku left empty. The world comes back to Gaara in pieces, first the texture of dirt and grass beneath his back, then the taste of blood on his tongue, then the smell of sulfur and smoke, then the sounds of explosions and wind and _screaming_ and–

The cool presence cuts the flow. Then the warm presence. Their chakra stays in his system, moving and flowing and stoking the fire in his belly, reminding his body how to create chakra without Shukaku. But he is merely stable, not steady, not standing. He knows there is a world outside of this darkness, outside this puzzle with one piece missing, but he is right on it’s border with no way across.

He can’t stand idly by. He is the Kazekage. His will shapes the Sand, it can’t lie dormant. But though the mind is willing, the flesh is weak. It always has been, beneath the armor of sand and the ultimate defense and the monster. Gaara can only lie still, screaming and beating against the walls of his mind, utterly alone.

But he isn’t alone for long.

He feels ripples of warmth through the cracked remains of his sand armor, like hands stroking his face. They are foreign in how familiar they feel. The life he lead of no one being brave enough to show them their love through action ended long ago, but this isn’t one of Temari’s crushing hugs or Kankuro’s hair-ruffles or Baki’s hand on his shoulder. This is someone who he has never met, and yet, they feel like they’ve been here the whole time.

A voice– like Temari’s, but nearly threadbare– murmurs, " _It’s a rare privilege, dying for someone twice._ "

The remaining pieces of armor crack and crumble. The chakra within passes through his skin and into his network. The fire in his belly ignites, hot and bright.

" _My tiny, feeble child… I used my last breath to pledge that I would always protect you… But the time has come for you to learn how to protect yourself._ "

Gaara’s vision clears.

He’s lying on his back in the eye of a hurricane with tears drying on his cheeks. From the corner of his eye he picks out a familiar head of blond hair, and the Uchiha crest on the back of a jacket. Gaara shoves himself up, first to his elbows, then his hands, his knees, his feet. He grits his teeth. Moving his legs feels like pushing a mountain, but Gaara has done far greater things before. He drags himself, step by agonizing step, to stand between Naruto and Sasuke. They both do a double-take, eyes going wide. Chiyo can’t afford to gawk, not when her hold on what remains of Shukaku is threatening to break at any moment.

Gaara picks the Akatsuki out of the air, eyes slitting in a glare, and snarls, "Let’s see you work for it."

Gaara sends Earth chakra racing up Naruto and Sasuke’s arms, down Chiyo’s chakra strings, and into Shukaku’s mass. He grabs hold of the sand within and pulls it back. The sand mixes in with the strings, reinforcing them with the strength and stability of the Earth itself. Shukaku’s slow slide comes to a screeching halt. Sasuke exchanges a quick glance with Naruto, who bobs his head in a nod. The two of them turn back to Shukaku, tighten their grip on Chiyo’s arms, and start heaving her back as one. Gaara moves with them, staggering backward and pulling the sand with all the chakra he can spare. Chiyo pulls her arms in, as close as she can.

Deidara grips his teeth, his bird flapping it’s wings so fast they’re nearly invisible. Sasori’s eyes dart in a dozen different directions at once as he struggles to stay on the bird _and_ pull Shukaku’s massive form away from the dark vortex threatening to consume it. After a moment, his eyes shut. He clenches his hands into fists and yanks them back, like pulling a ripcord.

Sasori’s strings squeeze down, tight as they can, and rip what’s left of Shukaku in half at the middle.

The sudden change in weight sends Sasuke, Naruto, Chiyo and Gaara all falling backwards, landing ungracefully in the dirt. Kamui sucks one third of Shukaku up into the darkness, it’s screams disappearing into nothingness. The black hole shrinks down, down, down, disappearing into the bright blue sky. There’s the sound of something heavy hitting the dirt, and Gaara’s eyes dart over to catch Kakashi falling onto his side in an exhausted heap. Sasori hauls the last third of Shukaku up off the ground as the bird darts off towards the horizon.

Naruto picks himself up onto his knees and shouts after them, "Hey! _Hey!_ Get back here!"

They don’t heed his words. They disappear from view, the piece of Shukaku they’re dragging with them screaming and thrashing all the way.

Gaara takes a deep breath, then sighs, "Good riddance," but to whom, he’s not quite sure.

He pulls himself up into a sitting position, letting his eyes roll across the ruin of fallen puppets, burning grass, and upturned dirt that this clearing has become. They run over Sasuke at his side, taking several heaving breaths and drawing his excess chakra up to that point in the middle of his forehead. Gaara’s eyes come to a screeching halt on Naruto. With the adrenaline petering out of his system, with his senses coming back and assuring him that he’s _not_ dreaming, it hits him all at once what Naruto being here _means._

His mouth falls open and his thoughts spill out, "Naruto… You’re back."

Naruto blinks a few times, then turns to Gaara, his mouth spreading into a wide grin; "Yeah… Yeah, I am! And so are you, man! We did it!"

Naruto reaches as far around as he can to pull both Sasuke and Gaara into a rough hug; "We _did it, dude!_ We got you back!"

Sasuke fights a losing battle against the smile spreading across his face; "Welcome back, Lord Kazekage."

Naruto’s eyes light up, half with joy and half with tears, and he shakes Gaara by the shoulders; " _That’s right!_ You’re the Kazekage! _You’re the fucking Kazekage, dude!_ Congratulations! I’m so proud of you!"

Gaara’s mouth curls in a tiny smile, and he breathes, "Thank you… You–"

The mood dies a quick and painful death at the sound of Chiyo sucking in a sharp, pained breath.

All three boys whirl around to find Chiyo on the ground, face pale, eyes wide, hand clutching at her chest. They all scramble over, but Gaara and Naruto can only hover at her side while Sasuke coats his hands in healing chakra and does a quick and dirty field examination.

After a moment, he rasps, "Her body couldn’t handle the strain of this battle, she’s having a heart attack! Gaara, flip her onto her back and hold her still! Naruto, start doing CPR!"

They clumsily do as they’re told, Gaara rolling her onto her back and taking hold of her shoulders while Naruto starts chest compressions. Between rescue breaths Chiyo stares up at Gaara through glassy eyes, her mouth struggling to form words.

The most Gaara gets is a choked, whispered, " _I’m sorry,_ " before her eyes roll back, her jaw going slack.

Sasuke swears through his teeth, his palms ignite with lightning, and he shouts, "Naruto, pull back! Gaara, keep your fingers on her pulse, let me know when it starts back up again! _Clear!_ "

Sasuke presses his palms to Chiyo’s chest and her body jolts an inch off the ground at the shock. No pulse.

Sasuke rubs his palms together, coating them in yet more lightning; " _Clear!_ "

Her body flops on the ground like a fish on the deck of a boat. No pulse.

Sasuke grits his teeth, hissing, "God damn it god _fucking damn it_ not when I was _just starting to respect you you old– Clear!_ "

He tries once more, twice more, and barely stops himself from going for a third. Sasuke lets his hands fall into his lap. He stares down at Chiyo’s body for a long moment before shutting his eyes. He takes a few deep breaths, shuddering on the exhale. When he opens his eyes, he’s calm again, or at least as calm as he can force himself to be.

His eyes run over Gaara and Naruto before he says, "I’ll be back over to heal you guys in a second, I gotta deal with Kakashi first."

Sasuke picks himself up and lopes over to Kakashi. Gaara keeps staring down at Chiyo’s body. For all the life he has taken, it’s rare that Gaara is ever this close to a corpse. That life can leave a body so quickly, leaving it only an inert lump of meat and bone, is something he still has trouble fully comprehending. He wonders if _anyone_ can, really.

"Hey," Naruto murmurs, drawing Gaara’s attention to the troubled look on his face, "She said… She was apologizing to you… Do you…"

Naruto meets his eyes and asks, "Do you think you can forgive her?"

Gaara is quiet for a moment.

He closes Chiyo’s eyes and replies, "I don’t know. I suppose I’ll just have to try."


	9. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> " _The Nine Tails’ time will come. When it does, I expect you to make the intelligent decision. Do you understand?_ "
> 
> Itachi’s voice comes out pale and starved; "I do, Sir."
> 
> " _Good._ "

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Welcome to the part of the fic that I like to call "flying off the rails propelled by homemade bottle rockets"!

**VIII.** Pain’s voice echoes in Itachi’s head, " _This is the second time your brother has interfered._ "

Itachi says nothing.

" _His attachment to the Nine Tails hasn’t waned after two years of absence. It is safe to assume that wherever the Nine Tails is, your brother will not be far._ "

Itachi says nothing.

" _The Nine Tails’ time will come. When it does, I expect you to make the intelligent decision. Do you understand?_ "

Itachi’s voice comes out pale and starved; "I do, Sir."

" _Good._ "

Pain’s presence in his mind flickers out. Itachi stares out at the landscape, blood red and far too sharp. He pushes the chakra out of his optic nerves and the world blurs. The shinobi in him tenses up, starts listing off all the dangers, all the ways an enemy could sneak up on him and take advantage. The man in him doesn’t mind it. The world looks like an Impressionist painting, with forms built from daubs of pure color and suffused with light. It isn’t reality. But it certainly is beautiful.

A shadow falls over him, and Kisame’s voice comes in low and smooth from his side; "Itachi."

Itachi unfolds himself from his cross-legged sitting position, his knees creaking after having spent over half a day bent; "We need to move."

Kisame’s hand on his chin freezes Itachi in place. His pulse jumps at the contact. Kisame turns Itachi’s head so he’s facing him. Itachi keeps his eyes focused on the strokes of red on a field of black that make up Kisame’s cloak.

"Itachi. Look at me."

Kisame tilts Itachi’s head up and Itachi’s eyes follow it, a beat behind. Without his sharingan, Kisame is almost invisible against the blue sky. If not for the lighting-strike scars scrawling ruddy gray across his face, he would be. Another gift from his brother.

Kisame says evenly, "I don’t know why you left Sasuke alive. I don’t know why you _keep_ leaving him alive. That’s between the two of you, and unless you’d rather it be otherwise I’ll make sure it stays it that way. But… Itachi. _Look at me._ "

Itachi presses his lips tight together, draining their color, and activates his sharingan. Kisame turns from a blurry blue to sharp gray, the red tint washing him out. His mouth is set in a stern frown, his narrow eyes seeming to see more than they should. Itachi has always liked that about Kisame. Maybe, when he’s feeling slightly less like torturing himself, he can even admit that he loves it. That, even as whatever semblance of control he pretended to have over his life spirals further and further out of his grasp, his one stroke of luck was being partnered with Kisame.

Kisame doesn’t say anything, not right away. He drops to a crouch, putting them at eye level, and lets his fingers roam up Itachi’s jaw to his hairline. He runs his hand through Itachi’s hair and Itachi leans into the touch. His fingers catch on Itachi’s hair tie and pull it loose. Itachi’s hair spills like ink over his shoulders. Kisame plays with the split ends.

After a moment, Kisame bluntly says, "If your brother crosses the Akatsuki, then he gets the same treatment as _anyone_ who crosses the Akatsuki. You can go easy on him all you want. Like I said, whatever is between the two of you is between the two of you. But he didn’t pull any punches with me, so I won’t pull any with him. It’s personal, certainly. But more than that, it’s business. I won’t ask you if you understand. I know you, so I know that you do."

And Itachi’s gut and heart twist at that, because even as Kisame’s words pile like straw on his already-broken back Itachi can’t be anything but grateful for his honesty. For how he _does_ know Itachi, well enough to pry the mask away and see the storm beneath. He’s not sure anyone else in his life ever has ever known him quite as well. Perhaps Shisui, but the amount of time he’s spent without Shisui is slowly catching up to the time he spent with him, and grief is making his memory rot.

It’s another thing he likes about Kisame. When he _is_ feeling like torturing himself, he can even admit that he loves it.

That’s always been his problem, Itachi supposes. He only knows how to love in one way: With so much of his heart that at the end none of it is left for him to keep.

Kisame weaves his fingers into the hair at the nape of Itachi’s neck and brings him closer, close enough for their struck-through headbands to _clink_ against each other. Itachi deactivates his sharingan. At this distance, mere inches away, he can see Kisame’s face as though he’s looking through water.

Kisame murmurs, "I know you understand. I just want to know if you’re ready."

No; "Yes."

"You’re sure?"

 _No;_ "Yes."

"Itachi. Tell me the truth."

 _Hang the Akatsuki hang the Nine Tails but don’t make me choose between Sasuke and you because you will lose and I want to keep you for as long as I can;_ "I am."

Kisame sighs, almost into his mouth, "I don’t know why everyone says you’re such a good liar. But fine. Keep the truth between you and your soul," he withdraws, standing tall and sturdy as a pine, "Let’s get going."

Itachi staggers to his feet, standing like a tree that has given away all but it’s stump, and replies, "Lead on."

* * *

Obito runs his hands through his hair; " _What_ do you _mean_ one third of the One Tail is _gone?!_ "

It’s days like this when Obito starts to question his own judgement. The Akatsuki were supposed to be an elite, dangerous, unstoppable force. They were supposed to make gathering all nine tailed beasts _easy._ That’s what Obito _wanted,_ but what he _got_ was fifteen years of stalling, infighting, setbacks, and failures so utterly _embarrassing_ Obito had to resist the urge to rip Nagato’s eyes out and just do everything himself.

Two years ago, Obito thought their lowest moment was their attempt to take the Nine Tails– a _child_ who knew _two_ jutsus– being thwarted by two _more_ children who knew ( _gasp_ ) _four_ jutsus. Two months ago, he thought their lowest moment was Hidan and Kakuzu going all the way into No Man’s Land only to miss the Seven Tail because she _turned around and left_ a few moments before they could cross paths.

But both of those pale in comparison to their hideout being _immediately_ discovered, the One Tail being torn into thirds, and one of those thirds just being _gone._ And instead of drafting up plans to find, isolate, and subdue the remaining tailed beasts he’s here, pacing circles in a River Country forest, dreaming of all the myriad ways he could beat Nagato senseless.

" _Exactly what I said,_ " Nagato replies, the echo of telepathic communication doing little to disguise the tremble in his voice, " _Sasori and Deidara reported Kakashi Hatake summoning some sort of black hole in the air above the One Tail. It drew the One Tail’s body into itself, according to Sasori it would have sucked up all of it’s mass if he hadn’t cut their losses and ripped that piece of the One Tail in half. What do we do about this?_ "

Obito’s pacing comes to a stuttering halt; " _Kakashi Hatake?_ You’re certain it was Kakashi Hatake who summoned the black hole?"

" _At the moment it’s just Sasori and Deidara’s word, but Zetsu would be able to corroborate their story._ "

Obito snaps his fingers. One of the nearby trees ripples like the surface of a pond. Zetsu’s head comes sliding out of the bark, yellow eyes blinking just slightly out of sync.

The creature’s two voices talk over each other; "You rang?" "What do you want _now?_ "

"You were following Sasori and Deidara," Obito snaps, "Was Kakashi Hatake one of their opponents? And remember, answer _one at a time._ "

Zetsu’s head does a strange diagonal nod, the white half pulling an unwilling black half along after it as it says, "Oh yes! He’s hardly changed a bit since we first saw him, still all messy hair and gloomy attitude! I guess some people never really grow up!"

"He used Kamui," the black half rumbles, "It’s different than yours, it seems to have a longer range. But it’s the same jutsu. You got lucky, for once."

Obito’s heart skips a beat, and he mutters in a rush, "Give me a moment."

Obito has _tried_ to explain what the feeling of being sucked into Kamui’s dimension is like in words and has failed every time. The closest he’s ever come is saying that it’s like someone is grabbing him by the eyeball and pulling hard enough to turn his body inside out. It’s horrifically uncomfortable and it _used_ to be disorienting, but even a rogue ninja can get used to anything for the sake of the mission.

In the blink of an eye, Obito is no longer in a dense forest, but instead a deep dark void filled with randomly arranged and differently sized rectangular towers that go on for miles. He’s used to this place being silent and still, but the instant Obito touches down all he hears is wretched wailing. Obito’s eye locks onto a mass of writhing claws, whipping tails, gnashing teeth and bulging eyes on the tower just opposite the one he landed on. Sand and wind are whirling around it in lashing streams. With his Sharingan active this piece of the One Tail almost seems to glow, as it’s chakra and it’s physical body are one and the same.

Chakra flows around the creature in drunken spirals, winding up and up and up until it dissolves into the air. Obito grits his teeth. The creature is injured, bleeding, fading. If they leave it in here much longer it might completely disappear, and two thirds of a Tailed Beast are no substitute for the whole creature where the Plan is concerned. Obito is about to warp away when several eyes open up on the creature’s flank, irises like gold coins picking him out of the darkness.

A mouth splits the flesh on the back of a claw and the One Tail’s voice rattles, "Hurts… _Hurts…_ Scared… _Scared…_ Help? _Help… please?_ "

Something stirs in Obito’s chest. Something old and soft.

For just a moment, he lets it speak; "Don’t worry. You’re going to be just fine."

Obito warps away, but he doesn’t return to where he came from. He comes rolling out of Kamui’s dimension and onto a rocky plateau underneath an overcast sky. The Village Hidden in Rain looms on the horizon, a jagged spike of industrial towers jutting out of the ground like a massive stalagmite. The Land of Rain is edging towards it’s drier season, the clouds merely misting the rocky terrain with a light drizzle and making everything damp and slippery.

Obito rises to his feet; "I’m back. We have a chance to salvage this, but we need to move quickly. Tell Sasori and Deidara to regroup at the hideout in Rain. I’ll meet them there. While they’re en route, let the rest of the Akatsuki know that they’ll be needed again shortly and to stand by."

There’s a pause, long enough that Obito starts to wonder if Nagato wasn’t listening, before his voice echoes in his mind again; " _So you’re revealing yourself to the rest of the Akatsuki, then._ "

Obito sneers beneath his mask; "I have no other choice. Or, I suppose it’s more accurate to say that you’ve _given_ me no other choice. Don’t misunderstand– This is _not_ success. You have gotten _supremely_ lucky today, Nagato. When this is over, you and I are going to have a _discussion_ about the Akatsuki’s future _._ "

Nagato’s voice drops into something rough that rattles Obito’s brain in his skull; " _The Akatsuki are_ mine, _Madara. Your_ support _and_ advice _have been invaluable in the past, but you have no right to give me_ orders."

Obito has to bite the inside of his cheek to stifle a snicker.

Instead, he simply asks, "In the fifteen years that this organization has existed how many tailed beasts have we successfully sealed, Nagato?"

Nagato is silent.

"You’re close," Obito sneers, "One. We have _one._ Obtaining money, cornering the mercenary market, taking control of the Land of Rain, all of that is temporary. The tailed beasts can bring about change that will _last_. I strongly suggest you rethink your priorities, Nagato, while you still have the option."

Nagato’s presence in his mind flickers out without a word.

* * *

" _Soldier pills?!_ The two of you _really_ popped soldier pills," Sasuke exclaims, pausing in disinfecting one of Naruto’s cuts to cuff the back of his head, "What the _Hell_ were you thinking?! Those things are _poison,_ and you didn’t even _need them!_ "

Naruto rolls his eyes and snaps, "Well you didn’t _need_ to drop a whole cliff on my head but you did it anyway!"

Sasuke finishes cleaning the wound, fishes some gauze out of a pocket, and presses down on it; "How many times am I gonna have to apologize for that?"

"Once for every rock that hit me," Naruto replies with a shit-eating grin, "Wanna go back to the hideout and count?"

Sasuke just presses even harder, forcing a yelp out of Naruto’s mouth. Naruto, Sasuke, and Gaara have regrouped a respectful distance from Chiyo’s body and are sitting in a loose circle near the unconscious Kakashi. According to Sasuke, a combination of chakra exhaustion, blood loss, head trauma, and just normal exhaustion had hit Kakashi with the force of an out of control train and his body just couldn’t handle the strain of being conscious in the face of all that. Naruto had thought that soldier pills were supposed to keep that kind of thing from happening, but apparently he was wrong.

"But hey, it’s not so bad," Naruto continues, "Since I’m gonna be good for another two and a half days I could pretty much just carry you guys all the way back to the Sand Village! The clones won’t mind the workout!"

Sasuke shakes his head; "We shouldn’t move Kakashi yet, at least not without a stretcher. We’re better off bedding down here, where it’s safe, or asking for sanctuary from the Hidden Valley Village."

"I wouldn’t say we’re 'safe' here," Gaara murmurs, futzing with his fingers in a way that reminds Naruto so much of Hinata it makes him homesick all over again, "You said we’re… How many miles north of the Hidden Valley Village?"

"About eight," Sasuke replies.

"That’s not far at all," Gaara remarks, "It strikes me as… unsettling, that hideout being so close to the village, and yet they haven’t noticed it. If the three of you were able to find it within a day, I can’t imagine it was particularly well hidden."

Naruto frowns, turning that over for a few moments, before finally finding the spots where those pieces fit together; "Wait, you don’t mean–?!"

"It’s a serious accusation, so I’m not etching anything in stone yet," Gaara cuts in, "But the village is small, too small to effectively protect a border territory rich in natural resources with lucrative shipping lanes connecting the Lands of Earth, Wind and Fire. It’s possible, maybe even likely that they could’ve been subcontracting more difficult and dangerous missions to the Akatsuki in exchange for allowing them to maintain a hideout in the country."

Naruto is sure he looks like a dog as he cocks his head to the side, but he can’t fight the reflex; "Wait, the Akatsuki do mercenary stuff too? I thought they were, like, a creepy cult or some shit."

Sasuke shrugs a shoulder; "There’s no rule saying they can’t be both, I guess."

"It wouldn’t be wise to bring me to the Hidden Valley Village," Gaara continues, "Bringing them a weakened Kage and asking for sanctuary is basically tantamount to saying 'here, have a free hostage who can get you every single concession you’ve ever wanted from the Land of Wind'."

Naruto’s face scrunches up in disgust; "They wouldn’t do that, would they? That’s a _huge_ dick move!"

Gaara’s mouth twitches at the corner; "It certainly is. But this country is small. The Wind and Fire Daimyō would both prefer it annexed into their own territory. The Land of Rivers knows better than to trust it’s larger neighbors, and any edge they can get on them is one they have to take."

Naruto frowns at the dirt; "That _sucks._ "

"That’s politics," Sasuke sighs.

"Politics _suck_ ," Naruto spits.

Gaara arches a brow; "Says the future Hokage."

Naruto’s reply catches in his throat. He lets the silence stretch out for several minutes. It feels stupid when he actually puts it into words, but Naruto hadn’t really thought of what the daimyō do and want being _their_ problem. Ninja take jobs from anyone who pay, right? The daimyō should just be clients, no more or less special than anyone else. But, then again, the daimyō also _own_ the _land_ the villages are _in._ If they tell the daimyō to fuck off he could probably just evict the whole village or something. But the villages are the country’s _army_ , basically, so how’s he really gonna enforce something like that? If the daimyō told them 'get out of my country' the village could just go 'make me bitch'. But going and kicking the daimyō’s ass just because they didn’t like something he said feels _gross_ for some reason. But…

Naruto’s head is starting to hurt.

He flounders for a change of subject and finds one when his eyes run across Kakashi; "Hey, Sasuke, what was that crazy jutsu Kakashi used to suck up Shukaku? That was a sharingan thing, right?"

Sasuke had been in the middle of taking a roll of bandages out of his pocket. The question makes Sasuke suddenly fumble with the roll and drop it on the ground. He scrambles around way longer than he should need to before finally picking it up again. He dusts off the bandages and starts wrapping them around one of Naruto’s wounds, tight enough to hurt.

"Hey, _hey,_ " Naruto yelps, snapping his fingers next to Sasuke’s ear, "Earth to Sasuke! What the Hell is wrong with you?! I just asked a question, why are you trying to cut my circulation?!"

Sasuke stops, shoulders pulling in tight, and he mutters, "I was _hoping_ you didn’t notice that."

"Well I did, so what gives? What’d he do?"

Sasuke’s eyes slowly pull up to meet Naruto’s, a flinty look in them Naruto hasn’t seen in ages; "I don’t know for certain. I’ve never seen anyone do _that_ before, but… With my sharingan, I could see the pattern on his eye change, and… The only thing I know that can make how the sharingan _looks_ change is the Mangekyō Sharingan."

Naruto takes a moment to think that over. He’s definitely heard the term Mangekyō Sharingan somewhere before, but where exactly is harder to place. He digs through his memory, then suddenly hits the image of Sakura. She’s lying in a broken heap in the middle of a motel hallway in Shukuba Town, blood leaking from her mouth, her eyes dead and blank. Jiraiya is holding Sasuke back as he tries to go to her side, voice breaking in panic. And Naruto is standing there, struck dumb and useless.

Naruto blurts out, "That thing your brother has?! I thought that was some kind of fucked up torture genjutsu, how’d Kakashi slurp up a third of a Tailed Beast with it?!"

"From what I understand, the Mangekyō Sharingan manifests differently in the left and right eyes," Sasuke explains, running a hand through his hair, "The right eye lets the user cast a ninjutsu, and the left lets the user cast a genjutsu. Kakashi has the right eye, so he has a ninjutsu, but that’s not the _point._ "

"Then what is?"

Sasuke purses his lips tight enough to make them disappear. He leans back from Naruto’s wounds, braces his elbows on his knees, and holds his head in both hands. Naruto shoots Gaara a wide-eyed look, silently asking, 'What the _hell?_ ' Gaara just shrugs, shaking his head.

When he speaks, Sasuke sounds like he just swallowed drywall; "Kakashi told me… He got his sharingan because one of his friends sacrificed himself and gave it to him as he was dying. But the Mangekyō… You only get the Mangekyō Sharingan by _killing_ someone you love."

It’s like someone hit Pause on the world.

Naruto’s stomach is up in his lungs. He feels like he’s about to float off the grass and into the sky, past the clouds, all the way into the stars. Kakashi told them that teamwork was more important than anything. He told them that abandoning your friends made you worse than trash. But Kakashi has been abandoning Naruto since the Chūnin Exams, hasn’t he? Why is him being a gigantic hypocrite suddenly _surprising?_

Sakura had called him her best friend the night before she tried to murder him. Naruto should be used to this. He should be used to the people he loves being two-faced pieces of shit.

But he doesn’t _want_ to be.

Gaara’s voice pulls Naruto back down, not into his body, but beside it; "Did Kakashi tell you _how_ his friend died?"

Sasuke replies in a shivering monotone, "Not exactly. He said he took a mortal blow for Kakashi, and that he gave up his eye as he was dying."

"It could have been a mercy killing," Gaara remarks, low and steady, "If his death would have been slow and painful otherwise, he could have put him out of his misery after the transplant."

Sasuke whips a glare towards Gaara and snaps, "Then why wouldn’t he just _tell me that?!_ Why wouldn’t he _tell me_ that he has the Mangekyō if he _didn’t_ kill a friend in cold blood to get it?!"

Naruto frowns, and he feels like there’s a delay between his mind and his mouth as he says, "I still don’t get that, I mean… How do you even _get_ the Mangekyō if you have to _kill_ someone you _love_ to get it? You can’t _really_ love someone if you’re _killing_ them, can you? That just doesn’t work!"

Gaara’s face smooths over, his eyes looking past the clearing; "Love isn’t some immutable, primordial force. It’s just an emotion, dependent on people for it’s expression. And twisted people will inevitably express love in twisted ways."

Naruto wants to tell Gaara to shut the fuck up. He can tell from just one glance that Sasuke does, too.

But neither of them can say he doesn’t know what he’s talking about.

Gaara’s eyes suddenly jump to the sky, catching the sun’s light. Naruto hears the sound of massive wings and tenses up, hand going to his weapon pouch. Gaara grabs his shoulder, stopping him mid-motion. Naruto follows his eyes. The silhouette of a massive bird of prey is circling the clearing fifty feet above them. It does two loops before a high, sharp, complicated whistle rings out through the air. The bird dives down toward the clearing just in time to avoid a gust of wind from the West, so powerful it makes the trees bend at sixty degree angles.

The wind blows in a handful of birds, not quite as large as Garuda or the bird descending on them now, but large enough to fly comfortably with a single rider on their backs. Behind them are a score of ninja gliding on what look like massive kites, catching the wind from a dozen more ninja standing astride the smallest of the great birds and waving massive fans. They all circle down towards the clearing, the largest of the birds– an osprey the size of a draft horse– reaching them first.

The bird bows low to let it’s two passengers slide off it’s back. One is a man Naruto doesn’t recognize with bird-like eye makeup, and the other is Temari. Naruto doesn’t get to take in much else about Temari before she sprints across the clearing, tumbles to her knees in front of Gaara, and throws her arms around him in a crushing hug. Naruto hears flapping wings, sandals crunching rapidly across burnt grass, and suddenly a Kankuro with no hood but hastily-applied face paint is barreling into the hug. He nearly knocks his brother and sister over, but Gaara has enough strength to brace himself against the ground and roll with the impact.

Sasuke glares over at the man with the eye makeup and snaps, "Seriously, Arsalan?! Kankuro _just_ got a _deadly, heavy metal-based toxin_ flushed out of his system and you take him along to potentially fight the _Akatsuki?!_ "

'Arsalan' puts his hands up defensively; "Hey, _you_ try telling him _not_ to go rescue his brother. It was either we let him come along or he would’ve found some way to smuggle himself onto a _bird._ "

Sasuke’s eyes drift back to Gaara, Kankuro, and Temari. Temari’s voice is thick as she reprimands Gaara through a watery smile. Kankuro has most of his face pressed into Gaara’s hair, every breath making his back shake. Gaara is smiling, small and warm and practiced. No amount of exhaustion can hide the envy on Sasuke’s face.

Sasuke shakes his head and sighs, "Whatever. Nothing to do about it now."

Ninja drop from the backs of birds and glide down on paper wings. By the time all their reinforcements have touched down in the clearing, Naruto has counted more than fifty shinobi in all.

Gaara stares past his siblings at the crowd; "The Airborne Division…"

"Everyone who’s in flying shape," Temari replies, voice brimming with pride, "A hurricane couldn’t keep them from coming after you."

Arsalan’s face falls into a solemn frown and he puts a hand to his heart; "You have the Falconer Corps’ sincerest apologies, Lord Kazekage. If we’d caught on to Yura’s treachery sooner, none of this would have happened."

A ninja wrapped head to toe in pale linens comes up next to Arsalan, dropping to one knee; "I apologize on behalf of the Nightjar Corps, Lord Kazekage. No intruder should have _ever_ been able to use the skies against you. We won’t allow it to happen again."

Temari shoots Gaara a weary smirk; "I don’t have to say 'ditto' on behalf of the Fan Corps, do I?"

Gaara is still staring, awestruck, at the crowd; "All of them… They all came here… for me?"

Kankuro shoots Temari a grin over Gaara’s head; "If he’s gettin’ all worked up over fifty people he’s gonna lose his _shit_ when he gets home to a whole _village_ happy to see him."

Naruto is happy for Gaara. Really, he is. He deserves this. But Naruto’s sure that no amount of exhaustion can hide the envy on _his_ face.

The Nightjar next to Arsalan stands up to their full height and turns to Sasuke; "We noticed your injured comrade and… Lady Chiyo. Our kites can be converted to stretchers to transport them, if you like."

Sasuke shakes his head, picking himself up; "If you let us borrow one, that’ll be fine. Gaara should be well enough for air travel, and Chiyo… Well, you know. You all go on ahead, we–"

"Absolutely not," Gaara cuts in, voice hard and authoritative. Sasuke flinches a bit at the sudden change in tone, but Naruto almost jumps. It’s like Gaara aged ten years in ten seconds.

He slowly comes to his feet, Temari and Kankuro on either side helping him up despite not looking so steady themselves; "The three of you did the Sand Village a great service. For us to leave you to your own devices now would be a grave insult. And there are those in the village who would be… interested to know exactly what Kakashi did with Shukaku. We will escort you back to the village on foot, with contingents of the Airborne Division keeping watch on the surrounding area for danger."

Gaara’s mouth quirks up at the corner and he sighs, "Don’t fight me on this, Sasuke. We’ve all had too long a day for that."

Sasuke shakes his head, a smirk struggling to break through; "As you command, Lord Kazekage."

Sasuke comes over, offering to help Naruto to his feet, and Naruto lets him. Three Nightjars break down their kites, two turning theirs into stretchers and one into a shroud for Chiyo. With Kakashi and Chiyo safely bundled onto their stretchers, the party start their long, aching journey back across the sand.

* * *

The Akimichi build their buildings like they build their clansmen: tall, broad, and round. Akimichi buildings are the reason for the Leaf Village’s signature architecture, everything from the Hokage Tower to the wall itself were built by Akimichi hands. The easiest way to find an Akimichi abroad is to look for round buildings with flat tiled roofs sticking out above the rest of the architecture, yet not looming over it. And the easiest way to find an Akimichi _in_ the village is to go to their greatest creation, Yamanekoya.

If the Hokage Tower is the village’s brain, Yamanekoya is it’s heart. The restaurant takes up the better part of a city block in the middle of the main drag, standing round and tall at two double-height stories. The building’s bright red walls and the large lanterns hanging from the roof make it impossible to miss no matter the time of day. Despite walking past it daily for over two decades, it never fails to make Asuma feel small as he approaches it’s circular double doors.

Asuma dodges around a party of chūnin leaving just as he’s entering, toes off his sandals, and steps up into the waiting area. The wide room is bustling with people as servers ferry handfuls of customers to their tables and yet more come up to the front desk to put their names in. Asuma cranes his neck to get a look at the hostess around a jōnin and his three bouncing genin inquiring about a table. The girl is a cousin of Choji’s, a sweet girl named Momoka with fluffy brown hair, sharp eyes, and rosy cheeks. The moment she finishes with the genin team, Momoka spots Asuma. Her round face lights up in a bright, shining grin.

She bows from the shoulders as she calls out, "It’s so good to see you, Asuma! How long has it been since you last came in?"

Asuma smiles and closes the distance to the front desk, bowing in return; "Good to see you too, Momo. Jeez, when _was_ the last time– _Three_ months ago, I think… Ah, I’m getting sidetracked. This is gonna be a _working_ lunch, so–"

Momoka’s eyes spark with recognition for just a moment before she affects a picture perfect pout and sighs, "Ah, I see, no time for small talk. Would you like _indoor_ or _outdoor_ seating?"

Asuma futzes with the lighter in his pocket, funneling his nerves out through his hands so they don’t show on his face; "Indoor. _Less distractions_ that way, this place’s food is distracting enough, you know."

Momoka nods and puts her smile back on; "I’ll go ahead and seat you, then."

She takes a menu from the front desk and starts off towards the seating area. Asuma follows three steps behind, deliberately keeping his pace at a casual lope. Momoka leads him on a meandering walk through the first floor’s spacious dining rooms, past civilian families having lunch with their children, groups of ninja blowing off steam, and travelers stopping in to see if the Leaf Village’s greatest attraction is worth the hype. Sunbeams and bird calls stream in from the windows, giving those inside views of the lush courtyard garden with scattered outdoor seats carved out of the building’s core.

When they’re halfway around the loop Momoka pulls off to one side, treading lightly up a staircase narrow enough that you could mistake it for the inside of the wall. Asuma squeezes up the stairs behind her, the sounds of the busy restaurant full of satisfied people slowly receding as they climb. The second floor trades wide open space for one long hallway with sliding doors on either side. Even if Asuma couldn’t feel it in the hairs on the back of his neck, the fact that even their footsteps are barely making a sound would be enough for him to clock the privacy genjutsus coating this floor like caramel on an apple.

Momoka leads him further down the hall before finally stopping at a door that looks identical to all the others. She forms half a seal with her free hand and presses her fingers to the center. With a pulse of chakra and a sound like the chiming of a bell, a small seal lights up beneath her fingers before disappearing. Momoka slides the door open to reveal a private dining room with richly embroidered cushions, a table made from lacquered oak, and screens painted with scenes of Akimichi Clan warriors battling giant monsters. The only feature even slightly out of place is the small door set into the Western wall.

Asuma steps inside and Momoka hands him the menu and her pen, dropping the coded doublespeak to tell him, "When you’re ready send your order down to the kitchen in the dumbwaiter. Should your guests be seated immediately, or…?"

Asuma shakes his head; "Stagger them. Have different hosts bring them up if you can."

Momoka’s soft face firms up into a pensive frown; "This is serious, isn’t it?"

Asuma looks her in the eye with a frown of his own; "Deadly."

It only takes Momoka a moment and one deep breath before her professional smile returns, and she chirps, "Enjoy your meal!"

Momoka bows and steps out of the room, shutting the door behind her. There’s another pulse of chakra from the door as Momoka resets the seal, leaving Asuma alone with his thoughts. And of course the _first_ place they go is to the carton of cigarettes burning a hole in his flak jacket pocket. His hand is already undoing the button holding the pocket closed before he stops to think. It’s always a bad idea to light up in a sealed room, especially when you’re waiting on guests who will complain about the smell. At the same time, lighting up would calm his nerves…

Asuma takes the carton of cigarettes out of his pocket and frowns at the label. The question of To Smoke or Not To Smoke was _way_ easier to answer last week. Now, Kurenai is pregnant and marrying her would be the responsible– but _incredibly_ expensive and frightening– thing to do. Now, Shikamaru is pulling damn near everyone he knows into chasing down leads on his conspiracy theory, a theory that Asuma _wishes_ he could dismiss as a kid’s overactive imagination. Now, the Kazekage’s life is hanging in the balance and everyone is waiting on bated breath to hear if the brand new Team Kakashi was enough to save him.

All incredibly compelling reasons both to light up and _not_ to light up.

Asuma is about to slip a cigarette out of the carton when the door slides open. He hastily shoves the carton back in his pocket and turns to see who arrived first. A different Akimichi cousin bows and shows Ino inside, a courtesy Ino repays only with a quick nod of a bow before she turns the full force of her smile on Asuma.

Ino is at his side in the time it takes the hostess to close the door behind her; "Hey Asuma-sensei! How are you doing?"

Asuma smiles with a loose shrug; "I’m surviving," he opens his arms and beckons her in with a small wave, "C’mere."

Ino sweeps down into the hug and Asuma gives her a tight squeeze. The scent of the Yamanaka Flower Shop on her is almost enough to drown out the smell of smoke on him. Ino breaks the hug to settle down beside him at the table, wincing and hissing as she sits down on her bent knees.

Asuma winces in solidarity; "Still having trouble with your joints?"

He doesn’t have to say why. The moment he returned to the village after a mission away and learned that two of his students, _his_ kids, were in the hospital because one had poisoned himself to win a fight and the other had been nearly beaten to death _by_ her teammate is burned into his memory. The panic he felt that turned to anger that turned to shame is cast in bronze, preserved forever.

But, in the present, Ino just grimaces and gripes, "Ugh, don’t put it like _that._ Makes me sound like an arthritic old lady."

Asuma grins and gives her shoulder a soft shove; "Makes you sound like a seasoned shinobi is more like it. Every time it rained my old man would complain about some old scar or another giving him Hell."

Ino arches her one visible brow; "Oh yeah, Old Man Third is _exactly_ the Hokage every girl in the village wants to be compared to."

Asuma wags his chin towards the table; "You can stretch your legs out, you know. Choji and Shikamaru won’t mind."

Ino rolls her eyes, scoffing, "Are you kidding? They’ll bitch _endlessly_ about me taking up all the leg room," before stretching her legs out anyway.

"They bitch about everything," Asuma chuckles.

Ino throws her head back with a theatrical sigh; "Why do I _even_ put up with them?"

Asuma shrugs a shoulder; "Tradition?"

Ino flops over to lean on him; "Gotta love it."

The next to arrive is Choji, who of course complains about Ino taking up all the leg room at the table the moment he sits down. Ino retaliates by shoving his knee with her foot and sticking her tongue out at him. Choji immediately gets to ordering lunch for everyone. He may not have been the best student in the academy, but he has a keen memory for the things that matter to him, and he has his team’s food preferences etched in stone. Besides, having Choji order for him saves everyone the trouble of hearing Shikamaru gripe about how much of a _drag_ ordering is.

Choji shoots Asuma a cheeky grin and asks, "Sure you don’t want me to order any extra helpings to take home to Kurenai? She _is_ eating for two now!"

Asuma rolls his eyes with a sigh, " _No._ If anyone sees me doing that they might start getting curious and _talking,_ and so far it’s more than overwhelming enough with just you guys knowing."

Choji’s grin drops along with his jaw; "You guys _still_ haven’t told _anyone else?_ Not even Kurenai’s dad?"

Asuma grits his teeth; " _Especially_ not Kurenai’s dad. You do want me to _live_ to see that kid be born, don’t you?"

Ino rests a cheek on her hand, giving Asuma a look he _thought_ she reserved for when Sasuke was being absolutely hopeless; "You still haven’t bought a ring, have you?"

Asuma drags a hand down his face, grumbling, "That’s none of your business."

Ino, of course, just laughs at him.

Choji has just sent their order down to the kitchen when Shikamaru finally arrives. Ino and Choji rib him for being late and Shikamaru claims he was far more interested in watching the clouds drift by than coming to lunch. Shikamaru _also_ complains about Ino taking up all the leg room and gets shoved for it. They bicker and gossip like it’s business as usual, but Asuma knows his kids far too well for that. Ino is sitting up too straight. Choji is futzing with his chopsticks. Shikamaru’s eyes never rest on one spot for long.

The act drops when there’s a ring of a bell from the dumbwaiter, signaling the arrival of the first helping of food. Ino’s smile drops. She pads on silent feet to the dumbwaiter, sliding the door open and running through hand signs. After a moment, she glances over to Shikamaru and shakes her head. Once she brings the plates to the table, Shikamaru slides them all over to Choji. He runs through a quick set of one-handed signs, coating all the food in a thin draping of chakra that rests for a few moments before dissipating. Choji nods to Shikamaru.

"Alright," Shikamaru sighs, "No poison, no bugs, we’re as clean and secure as we can be. Alright, let’s start with updates. Ino, Choji, anything new in your necks of the woods?"

"Yeah, actually," Ino replies, mouth already full of food, "Barrier Team is reporting more messenger hawks than yesterday coming in. Same with Intel Division, and a lot of the reports they’re getting were delayed by about a day or so. It’s still less than usual, but nowhere _near_ the drought there was yesterday."

Choji nods and piggybacks off of Ino’s report with, "Word from the wall is about the same. Anyone whose job it was to notice that kind of stuff noticed more hawks and reports and all that. And that made it so everyone else stopped paying attention 'cause now they can just blame it on some bad weather or something."

Shikamaru just nods, his brow furrowed, one hand covering his mouth and the other drumming on the tabletop. Asuma swallows a wince. Shikamaru has the look of someone who’s been thinking so hard without breaks the gears in his brain are starting to grind down smooth.

Shikamaru catches Asuma’s gaze and brings his hand away from his mouth to say, "Alright. With updates out of the way… Sensei. What do you have for us?"

Asuma sighs through his nose; "Well. Before we start let me _remind you,_ Shikamaru, that everything we’re looking at is still circumstantial–"

"Circumstantial evidence isn’t worthless evidence," Shikamaru immediately fires back, sharp black eyes pinning Asuma’s down like butterflies in a shadowbox. It’s difficult to tell if the kid’s got conviction or mania.

"I’m just telling you not to get too excited and jump to any conclusions," Asuma continues, breaking out his low and steady Sensei Voice, "If this is as serious as you think it is, as it _is_ if you’re right, there’s no such thing as being too careful."

Shikamaru arches a brow and attempts a smirk; "Asuma-sensei, when have I _ever_ had enough energy to _jump_ to conclusions?"

Asuma shakes his head, fighting a fond smile; "Smartass. All that being said, let’s get into it. Thanks to a few friends in the intel and archive divisions, I was able to get access to the reports from yesterday. Like you asked, I paid closest attention to where the reports were coming from."

Asuma reaches over to the sushi platter with his chopsticks, moving all the pieces of tuna sushi into the center; "Far and away, the most reports came from missions in Fire Country itself. But we knew that already."

Next, he moves the mackerel pieces off to the left; "Second most came from the Land of Wind, of course. They’re our staunchest ally and we’re rescuing their Kazekage, they’re gonna do everything they can to get messages to us no matter what."

Now the salmon pieces over to the upper left corner; "Third, Land of Earth. That old rivalry is gonna die hard and bloody, so of course we have tons of agents in their borders. Quantity is gonna overpower the quality of any blackout in that regard."

Asuma continues moving pieces of sushi around, creating a rough map with the amount of sushi of each type reflecting how many reports came in from the region in question. Once he’s finished, there’s a distinctive gap in the Northeast between the Land of Waterfalls and the Land of Hot Water.

Asuma jabs his chopsticks down into that gap; "There was _nothing_ from the Land of Sound or the Land of Swamps."

Ino drops her chopsticks. Choji’s eyes go wide as saucers. Shikamaru is still as a statue.

"You’re sure," Ino stammers, "Y-you’re _sure_ you didn’t miss any? You could have missed some. There had to be _some–_ There can’t have been _none,_ that–!"

"I’m sure," Asuma cuts in, putting a hand on her shoulder to steady her, "There was absolutely nothing."

"So whatever’s happening, whatever they’re trying to cover up," Choji gulps, staring intently at the gap in the sushi map, "It’s happening _there._ "

"We’ve been watching those bastards like _hawks_ for _years,_ " Ino blurts out, shrugging Asuma’s hand off as she whirls to look him in the eye, "There’s no way! We have people whose _whole job_ is just to stare at Sound and tell us if they do _anything_ weird! How could we suddenly lose track of them completely?!"

"It’s not just because of the personal vendetta that we have so many eyes on Sound," Shikamaru replies in a mutter, almost to himself, "It’s because even before this blackout getting word from inside the country was nearly impossible. Orochimaru runs the place like a bear trap– If you get stuck in there you’re gonna have to chew your leg off to get out."

"And, I mean," Choji pauses to chew on his lip for a moment before continuing, "The call’s coming from inside the house, remember? Our shadow probably _knows_ we have a bunch of people watching Sound. That’d make it way easier for them to intercept their communications or… intercept _them._ "

Ino’s shoulders slump as she stares past Asuma, eyes unfocused; "So. Something’s happening in Sound."

"Yeah," Asuma pauses to purse his lips before turning to Shikamaru, "Tsunade has to hear about this."

Shikamaru’s cheek flattens, the telltale sign that he’s biting the inside of his mouth; "Yeah. Problem is, now I’m _sure_ Hokage Tower is the least secure place for a conversation like that."

"You know this place is always safe, Shikamaru," Choji remarks, putting a smile back on, "That’s what the restaurant’s for, a good meal and a safe place to talk for ninja. That’s how it’s been for generations."

Shikamaru shakes his head; "We can’t rely on any one place. Not for long, anyway. I’ll think on it."

"Think quickly," Asuma mutters, hand itching for his lighter, "Like Ino and Choji said, foreign reports are already filling back out. If our shadow is really behind all of this, we can’t wait for them to _give_ us a clue. We have to steal one."

Shikamaru nods; "Let’s finish lunch. Stagger your exits. Choji, go out through the kitchen. I’ll head out the West exit, Ino, you get the East. Asuma, go out through the front."

Everyone agrees in mumbles or loose nods. Choji attempts more small talk and Asuma does his best to keep up with him, but Shikamaru and Ino aren’t even trying. Ino isn’t even eating. She just keeps staring at the far wall, brow slowly furrowing, mouth slowly twisting into a scowl. She leaves first without any prompting, stomping out of the room without a word and slamming the door behind her. Shikamaru leaves next, with only a nod to Asuma and Choji for their trouble. Choji lingers behind, finishing the last of the food and remembering his manners with a proper 'goodbye'.

Asuma sighs to the empty room, "Remember, Asuma– At least you’re not _Team Seven’s_ sensei."

He waits for five minutes before dragging himself to his feet, sending the paid check down in the dumbwaiter, and schlepping back the way he came. The energy of the restaurant feels like it’s a million miles away as he goes over everything in his mind. He barely even notices Momoka at the hostess desk, replying to her pleasantries with mindless monosyllables as he hears but doesn’t quite listen to them.

"Aw, no leftovers? Kurenai’s gonna be disappointed to see that, you know, since she’s eating for two now."

That remark doesn’t hit Asuma until he’s already put his sandals on. Then it slams into him like a palm thrust to the chest.

Momoka knows. She knows Kurenai is pregnant. _How?_ His team are a bunch of little shits, but he trusts them with his life as well as his secrets. Kurenai laid down the law that she wasn’t telling anyone until she knew what they were going to do about it. There are only five people who know Kurenai is pregnant. There _can_ only be five people who know Kurenai is pregnant. So _how does Momoka know?_

No, no, Asuma, _breathe._ She’s basically a civilian, their type gossip all the time about ninja drama, it’s probably a rumor. A rumor that’s too close to the truth for his liking, but a rumor. Asuma turns to her, ready to say whatever gossipmonger told her that was talking out of their ass. The remark dies on the back of his tongue.

Momoka is still smiling at him. But her eyes have lost all their light. They’d look better in the face of a dead fish– No. Those are the eyes of someone looking down at a fish they’ve hooked and are dragging through the water, inch by thrashing inch.

She grins like a wildcat and trills, "Have a great rest of your day, Asuma! Tell Kurenai _we_ say hello!"

Asuma can’t stop himself from staggering a half-step back. He opens his mouth, but chokes on his words as a party steps around him to the hostess desk and Momoka’s eyes light back up. She helps seat them with all the genuine cheer and enthusiasm she showed him when he walked in. Like the flat, dead creature he saw in her eyes never existed.

Asuma stumbles out through the front door. He can’t light a cigarette fast enough.

* * *

Noa sprints as fast as her legs can carry her, moss-colored hair falling in her eyes. She passes blood and soot stains on the road to the honmaru’s gate, tracking more behind her. She clutches her arm, trying to staunch the flow of blood from the burns running from her fingers to her elbow.

The moment before she crosses the threshold, Noa hears Kabuto’s voice calling out, "After her! Don’t let her leave the castle grounds alive!"

Noa sucks a breath in through her teeth and leaps through the gate.

It feels like everything went wrong in an instant. One moment, Noa was sitting outside the throne room, tending to her rifle and thinking about the kind of future she could have in the new state San-Ha wanted to make. The next, there was a thump against the hard wood and the sound of San-Ha choking on her own spit. She had leapt to her feet at the same time as her fellow guard, throwing open the shoji to find Kabuto standing over San-Ha as she writhed and foamed at the mouth. Noa’s body had frozen while her eyes had darted between San-Ha, growing increasingly blue in the face, and Kabuto’s menacingly blank expression.

Her fellow guard hadn’t hesitated. He’d pulled his rifle up to his shoulder and taken aim, but Kabuto was faster. You never want to be slower than a ninja in a small space. Kabuto, in a flicker, got between them both and grabbed their rifles by the barrels. His hands had glowed for a brief moment with red hot chakra before the powder in the rifles ignited. Both guns exploded in their hands. Her fellow guard had his up by his face. He hadn’t stood a chance. But Noa had wrenched her hand out of the fire the second the explosion went off.

For just a moment, there had been a screen of black smoke between her and Kabuto. She took that moment and ran with it. As she’d run she’d cut through the dining hall, hoping to find help. All she’d found was more people– _so many people,_ _everyone, it looked like everyone_ – dead and dying as they choked on the same poison that killed San-Ha. Noa had burst out of the dining hall and out into the honmaru proper, running for the exit. All along the way she caught sight of her fellow revolutionaries disappearing into shadows, never to reappear. Good folk, honest folk, folk who just wanted to be treated fairly, died from senbon in the neck, lightning chakra shocking their hearts to a stop, and genjutsu that looked like nothing at all from the outside.

Noa kept running. She's been running for hours, going in desperate circles to avoid the ninja before finally finding an opening to make a break for it. It’s taken her as far as the ninomaru. It’s going to have to take her all the way out of Jungsimji, all the way out of the Land of Sound.

Feet, don’t fail her now.

Noa’s eyes jolt up to the rooftops penning in the winding road out of the palace. She can spot several silhouettes with porcelain faces dogging her every step. The fact that she can spot them at all means they’re not taking her seriously. Means they’re toying with her, playing with their food. She grits her teeth in a snarl. She never bowed to ninja before and she's not starting now.

She forces her eyes forward and bites out a curse in Sound’s native tongue. Someone must have triggered a pit trap, because the road in front of her is cut in half by a deep, wide, dark trench. She thinks she can spy spikes at the bottom of it, as well as several skewered bodies– wait, why can she see that from this angle? That doesn’t make sense, that doesn’t _work,_ that’s– That’s not real. It can’t be real. But what if it is? There’s no way for her to tell. The hairs on the back of her neck refuse to settle down, she can feel chakra working all around her but she can’t reach out and touch it like ninja can.

She has to trust her instincts. She has to trust herself. The instant before she hits the lip of the pit she shuts her eyes, forcing herself to keep running straight ahead without stopping.

Her feet hit solid ground.

Noa runs for another foot before opening her eyes again. Just in time, too. She can hear the sharp whistling of metal flying through the air and crackling of fire. She swerves left and right in a jagged zig-zag, juking out of the way of a bevy of flaming shuriken. She’s coming to a bend in the road, but she can’t take it. It’s a blind curve, they’re going to have an ambush on the other side. She remembers Zhàdàn telling them that they had to take advantage of those blind curves themselves when laying siege to this place. She’s not going to get caught in her own trap.

Noa veers off to the right and into a narrow alleyway that barely earns the name. It’s more like a crawlspace, a passage only rats and the cats chasing them should be using. She squeezes through it an inch at a time, her heart stopping every time she hears the distinctive sound of feet on roof tiles. She comes tumbling out of it, end over end, and adrenaline turns her stumble into a roll.

Once upright again, Noa scrambles through the ninomaru’s winding roads. Out here, it’s somehow _worse_ than in the palace itself, because out here it's dead silent. Out here, the ninja have already done their work. Out here, the resistance has already disappeared. Bitter, furious tears bite at Noa’s eyes. She needs to get out. Not for herself. Not for her own life. But for the revolution, because _someone_ has to tell the world what they did, what they were trying to do, what was _done_ to them. Someone has to tell the world the truth.

Noa prays to any kami and spirits that might be listening that she can get away, and if not her, someone, _anyone._ This dream can’t die in vain.

A wire, thin as hair but sharp and strong as iron, loops around Noa’s neck and pulls taut. Noa’s breath leaves her in a yelp. She’s pulled off her feet up to the roof level, kicking her legs this way and that. She can see the hands holding the wires if she cranes her neck, but she can’t crane it far. She claws at the wire with both hands, cutting her burned fingers as she tries to force them under it.

She hears a slimy, masculine voice chuckle in her ear, "No use running, country mouse."

Her mind clears like the crack of a whip. She can hear that voice loud and clear. He’s not wearing a mask.

Noa throws her head back and feels his nose crunch against her skull. The sudden blow makes his grip on the garrote slacken just enough for her to force her fingers under it. Noa forces her way out of it and drops painfully to the ground. Her ankle rolls on impact, but Noa ignores it. She doesn’t have time to be in pain. She dashes for a hole in the wall separating the ninomaru fron the sannomaru, blown in by their own cannons just last night, and soars through it. She’s out of the ninomaru. She’s _almost out._

Noa cuts through the sannomaru like scissors through paper. They did far and away the most damage here. There’s a path of destruction that cuts straight through walls and structures to the palace gate. She has no choice but to take it, even though it makes it easy for the ninja to follow her. She has a lead, but it’s not by much. Kunai and shuriken miss her heels by inches. She feels the burn of fire and lightning jutsu on the back of her neck. Noa keeps sprinting like the crow flies for freedom.

But, with the gate in sight, Noa swerves off the path again. The palace gate may be fingertips away, but so are the palace stables. Noa cuts through rubble to get there, jumping over loose pieces of stone and mortar scars. She shoulder-checks the door and spills into the stable, causing no small number of the horses to rear up and whinny in terror. Noa quickly scans the stable and zeroes in on the one horse not frightened by her sudden appearance, a brown mare tied up near the back. She crosses the distance to the horse, unties them, and climbs up onto their back.

Horses aren’t so different from mules in all the ways that matter. For example, both will go running like hell if you jab your heels into their sides, crack the reigns, and scream. Noa’s not-so-gentle urgings send the horse galloping back the way she came. They crash through the stable door, drift around the corner, and clear the palace gate.

Now it’s a straight shot. On horseback, Noa’s just that much faster the ninja, just enough to make a difference. She can make it out. She just has to _get there_.

Clouds gather in the darkening sky, cracks of lightning thundering across their dark expanse. Noa grits her teeth, eyes darting between the clouds and the road. A handful of spots on the clouds start to glow a bright blue. Noa guides the horse to swerve around the nearest one just as a bolt of lightning comes crashing down to earth. Her horse bucks, but Noa cracks the reigns again. She’s not taking any backtalk, not now, not from a _fucking horse._

She slaloms around the lightning bolts as they thunder down around her like electric rain. Noa never takes her eyes off the prize for long. She keeps the gate in sight, no matter what. She’s going to get there. She _has_ to get there.

She hears a voice call something out, too quick for her to register. The ground ahead of her ignites. A sheet of fire leaps up, turning the road ahead of her into the entrance to Hell. She can only barely make out the gate through the fire. Her horse lets out another harsh screech of a whinny. Noa digs her heels in as hard as they’ll go.

She won’t blink. She forces the horse forward in a dead charge, as close as she dares, before snapping the reigns as hard as she can.

This horse was trained for battle. It knows exactly what to do. It springs into the air, flying over the wall of fire in a clean arc, and hits the ground running.

Noa shoots through the gate. The horse keeps running down the main road, away from the city, away from Kabuto and ANBU, away from the danger.

Noa’s mouth breaks into a grin. She’s _out._ She’s _done it._ She’s–

A kunai cuts through the setting sunlight and buries itself down to the hilt in her horse’s throat.

With a choked bray, the horse veers off the road and into the rice paddies. It trips over it’s own hooves as they get caught in the marshy ground, front legs bending at an impossible angle. The horse goes tumbling end over end, dragging Noa down with it. It rolls to a stop, it’s dead weight pinning Noa half under the water and snapping _something_ in her left thigh. For a moment, Noa is feral. She claws and shoves and thrashes to get out from under the dead beast, anything to keep her from drowning.

A hand grabs her face and forces it down into the water.

Noa thrashes, but between the hand shoving her head below the water and the dead horse pinning her body down, Noa can’t wriggle free. Her lungs are screaming, burning, about to burst. But she can’t get up. Not this time. She doesn’t have any leverage, any strength. The hand's palm is covering her mouth and nose. She twists her head this way and that, and as her vision tunnels, she gets one last glimpse between their fingers of the person drowning her in a muddy rice paddy like a common thug.

Just like San-Ha, the last thing Noa ever sees is Kabuto, sneering down at her in sadistic triumph.

* * *

Suigetsu feels like he’s been watching Sakura across the fire pit for hours now. And now that he thinks about it, if you add up all the times he’s stolen glances at her since they broke to make camp, he probably has.

Their little ragtag team crossed the border into the Land of Fire in the middle of the afternoon. If they were traveling at the pace of _ninja,_ they’d at least be halfway to the Leaf Village before dark. But they’re traveling at the pace of a one-legged civilian, so the Sound border is still nowhere near far away enough for Suigetsu’s comfort. Sakura had insisted they make camp. Jūgo could have kept going, but he always defers to her. Zhàdàn made token protests, but from how white and clammy his face was looking, Suigetsu could tell he was aching to stop. So it’d been up to him to complain for all of them.

Sakura, of course, had shut him down by frowning at him and saying, "If you want to keep going on ahead without us, be my guest. Just don’t come crying back to me when you get lost in the woods."

He’d kept griping and groaning as he’d helped them set up camp and skin the rabbits Jūgo caught them for dinner, but that was mostly out of a sense of obligation by that point. In all honesty, Suigetsu’s mind had been on one thing since they’d captured Jungsimji. And now that the night has wound down and it’s just him and Sakura at the fire, Jūgo and Zhàdàn snoring away in their bedrolls nearby, there’s nothing Suigetsu can do to keep his mind off it besides put it out into the world.

Suigetsu reaches down to his belt and draws Kusanagi, setting it down across his knees; "Hey, Sakura."

Sakura looks up from the map on her lap; "If this is another gripe about our pace I don't wanna hear it."

Suigetsu rolls his eyes; "Please, I know that battle’s not worth fighting anymore. The longer I do it the more I look like an asshole."

Sakura arches a brow and says volumes by not saying a thing. Suigetsu slits his eyes in a glare and bares his teeth. Sakura’s eyes drop down to the map, the corner of her mouth quirking in one of her 'barely-a-smile-but-it-counts' smiles. Smartass.

Suigetsu takes Kusanagi by the hilt and holds it out to her; "Here."

Sakura looks back up, brow furrowed in pure confusion; "What?"

"I’m giving Kusanagi back," Suigetsu replies, "Go on, take it."

Sakura blinks; "I thought you were collecting swords, why are you giving it to me?"

"Much as I’d _love_ to show off that I defeated Orochimaru, he was your teacher," Suigetsu huffs, ruffling his bangs, "And on top of that, you struck the killing blow. That means you get his sword."

Sakura’s mouth screws up in a frown; "Says who?"

Suigetsu flails his other hand in a vague, formless gesture; " _Tradition,_ okay? Call me superstitious, call me old-fashioned, but there’s some traditions you just don’t fuck with. They… They _matter._ The sword’s yours. You inherited it."

Sakura’s face, for just a moment, goes blank. Fuck. 'Inherit' was the wrong word. She doesn’t want to inherit anything _else_ from Orochimaru, of _course_ she doesn’t. But… He _was_ her teacher. He made her what she is. She can’t be as smart as she is and not see that.

Sakura shakes her head, her Barely A Smile returning; "Okay… If it’s mine, I get to decide what to do with it, right? Then I’m giving it to you. It’s a gift."

Suigetsu scowls at her; "Don’t patronize me, Sakura–"

"Just keep it, Suigetsu," she cuts in, running a hand through her hair, "Orochimaru didn’t teach me swordplay, and I didn’t want to learn it. I wouldn’t know what to do with Kusanagi. It’s better off seeing use in your hands than rusting in mine. Keep it. Please."

Suigetsu purses his lips and pushes a sigh out through his nose. He studies Sakura’s face. She won’t look at him. Her eyes are focused on the fire, orange flickering in the green.

Suigetsu brings the sword back to his lap; "Fine. But don’t go changing your mind when you get sentimental and want something to remember Orochimaru by, 'cause you’re not getting it back."

Sakura’s hand drifts up to her shoulder; "Don’t worry. I won’t."

They sit in awkward silence for a few moments. Suigetsu resists the urge to chew on his lower lip. Fuckin’– This was supposed to be a _nice_ thing he was doing for once in his damn life. Now it’s just _weird._

Sakura breaks the silence; "I’ll take first watch, you can go ahead and sleep."

Suigetsu shakes his head; "Nope. Not happening. You’re running on fumes, Sakura. Go to bed."

Sakura, firelight emphasizing the deep bags beneath her eyes, shoots him a glare; "I’m _fine._ "

"You’re super fuckin’ not," Suigetsu replies, "And we’re not gonna argue about that because you _know_ you’re not. I’ll let you take the next one if you _really_ want, but not this one. _Go to bed._ "

Sakura glowers at the fire. Suigetsu knows that look. That’s the look of a shinobi that doesn’t want to sleep because she’s afraid of her own dreams. But everyone has to face their fears eventually. Either she does it now, or she does it when she passes out from exhaustion.

Sakura rolls up the map and starts the trek over to her bedroll; "Wake me when it’s time for second watch."

Suigetsu gives her a mock salute; "Ma’am yes ma’am."

Suigetsu watches Sakura curl up between Zhàdàn and Jūgo, not taking his eyes off her until her breathing slows to match theirs. Once he’s sure she’s asleep, Suigetsu holds up Kusanagi and inspects her blade. She’s a beautiful sword. Probably forged somewhere in the South, by the shape of her. Definitely old, but Orochimaru kept her in impeccable shape. Suigetsu can’t help a snort. Old snake actually _did_ give a shit about something other than himself after all.

He catches his reflection on the blade and stares into his own eyes. A sword is a sword, and a well made, well maintained sword is nothing to pass up. But in this moment, he understands why Sakura did. Orochimaru used this to cut down innocents. Dozens of them. _Hundreds_ of them. A sword is an extension of the wielder, and this thing is an extension of the hands that captured and tortured him for years. Suigetsu isn’t sure what’s better revenge, using the sword to build his new legacy as a free man, or throwing it off a cliff into the ocean.

Suigetsu shakes his head, muttering in his best impression of Mangetsu, "Don’t get sentimental about metal."

He shouldn’t have taken first watch. It’s always night when the grief comes creeping back in, like a pathetic alley cat begging for scraps. His best impression of Mangetsu is getting worse by the day as he slowly forgets what his voice sounded like. He’s starting to forget what he looked like, too, replacing his face in his memories with a warped mirror of his own. Suigetsu glares at his reflection in the sword’s blade, starts to turn it away so he won’t have to look at himself, at his brother’s eyes.

He stops dead. At this angle, he can just _barely_ see _something_ glinting in the trees above them. Suigetsu clenches his jaw and shifts the sword by centimeters, enough to make it look like he’s examining a scratch further up on the blade as he tries to get a better view of _whatever_ is above them.

At this new angle, he can see what is clearly a pair of dark glass lenses reflecting the light refracting off Kusanagi’s blade. Suigetsu’s heart stops. For a moment, he’s _sure_ those are Kabuto’s glasses. But he pushes the shell shock to one side and forces himself to think it through. They’re too small. If they were glasses, there would be metal rims also catching the light. And the glass itself looks like it’s tinted.

No, that’s not Kabuto. It’s worse. It’s the lenses of an ANBU mask.

Act natural, Suigetsu. Don’t give the game away until you know what they’re after.

Suigetsu’s senses are now on high alert, high enough that he catches the barest rustle of leaves from the corner of his ear. The lenses drop out of sight. Suigetsu clicks his tongue against the roof of his mouth and twists the sword again to follow them down. He catches the dark silhouette hitting the ground yards behind Jūgo, Sakura, and Zhàdàn’s sleeping forms. Slowly, they prowl into the light. They don’t look like any ANBU Suigetsu’s ever seen. They have the mask, a Tiger design, but the rest is shrouded in a heavy black cloak. No identifiable uniform. Of _course_ they got the blackest of the black ops.

Suigetsu lets the ANBU operative stalk closer to the sleeping members of his team. He starts gathering chakra, slowly moving it down his arms and into his hands, waiting for the right moment.

The ANBU operative stops right above Sakura. They kneel down. Suigetsu catches the glint of a senbon in their hand.

He’s done waiting. He thrusts the chakra in his hands into Kusanagi’s blade. It lights up bright blue, the blade soaring out of his grip and straight for the ANBU operative. The ANBU operative jolts backward and proves their skill by parrying a _sword_ with a _senbon,_ breaking the needle but getting out of danger.

Suigetsu whirls around, Kusanagi shooting back to his hand, and grins at their attacker; "Good plan! Do it quick, quiet, and painless and I wouldn’t notice ’til she starts to smell, right? Well tonight, you were dead wrong."

Suigetsu brandishes the sword and snarls, "Come on, Tiger. Show me what you’ve got."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's odd that it's become a tradition for me to do this, but here we are. Merry Christmas :^)


End file.
